Socialite Becca Cason Thrash’s Houston Mansion Goes to Auction

A Houston mansion known for lavish gatherings that included the likes of George Clooney, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama is going to auction.

The 18,000-square-foot estate at 306 Longwoods Lane, owned by PaperCity Magazine co-founder Becca Cason Thrash and eCORP International CEO John Thrash, is listed at $19.5 million, and bids will open on May 18, the Houston Chronicle reported.

306 Longwoods Lane in Houston (Sotheby’s Realty)

The winning bid could go down as the most expensive sale of a single-family home in Houston. Last year, a 26,000-square-foot mansion in the Memorial neighborhood sold for $21 million, making it the only single-family home sale in the city to ever exceed $20 million, according to Houston’s multiple listing service.

Jay Monroe of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty listed the property, which spans 3.6 acres and is also in the Memorial area. It has three bedrooms, six full bathrooms and four half bathrooms. The mansion was built in 1965, originally as a mid-century brick house, but has since been renovated into a “contemporary architectural triumph,” according to Sotheby’s listing.

The architecture combines Eastern and Western influences and pays homage to architects like I.M. Pei, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the outlet said.

“It’s almost 20,000 square feet, but you don’t know it,” Becca Cason Thrash said in a video shared with the listing. “It’s nestled back in this very green property. And you see this sort of very minimal gray structure and gray granite gravel, and everything is really, really restrained. And then when you walk in, it just gets bigger and it unfolds.”

The property flooded during Hurricane Harvey, forcing the couple to live at a Four Seasons hotel for two years while the house was repaired.

—Quinn Donoghue