John Staub Friday Evening Reception

The Bayou Club was organized in 1938 by a group of Houstonians including William and Stephen Faris, Hugo Neuhaus, Harry Weiss, and Robert Randolph as a country retreat to provide a social and recreational context for its 79 original members. The club grounds included the clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis courts, horse stables, blacksmith shop, and polo grounds. John Staub was a founding member along with 21 of his clients. Staub derived the design of the club house based upon the pattern of a Louisiana Creole planter’s house and modified the design by giving the arrival side a formal pedimented portico. Quoting from Stephen Fox’s The Country Houses of John Staub, “As a work of Architecture, it
encourages, inspires, and consoles. Architecturally, the Bayou Club functions along the lines of
George Marcus’s description of a trust: it works to maintain continuity, sustain belonging, and
preserve identity by ensuring that succeeding generations will embrace what it offers.”