David Flesh House

• Designed by: William B. Wiener Sr.
• Design year: 1936

In 1935, Sallie W. Flesh purchased over an acre of land at in the Eastridge subdivision developed by architect Edward Neild Sr. and his partner Edward Jacobs Jr. on which her son, David, and daughter-in-law, Florence, would build a house. Sallie owned the land and David, a petroleum engineer, paid for the house construction. George and Sallie Flesh, David’s parents, would live in the house as they did in the Flesh’s earlier house on Linden Drive.  William B. Wiener Sr. designed the house for David J. Flesh and his extended family in 1936.

The house is organized in a three-bladed “pinwheel” configuration which nicely accommodates the extended family. Like the Wile house, the building combines exposed face brick and cement plaster (stucco) and numerous corner windows. The house has a continuous 5’-0” deep overhang at the perimeter of the house which is drained internally. The original steel casement sashes were replaced in the 1990’s with inoperable aluminum windows subdivided to mimic the previous steel casement windows. The Flesh house, like most pre-war houses designed by either Wiener brother, contained a roof-mounted fan house to assist air movement for natural ventilation. The fan house was more than likely removed when the sashes were replaced.

The Flesh house is the only extant Wiener-designed residence that maintains its original screened sitting porch. The screened porches at the Mayer, Samuel G. Wiener, John Preston, Presbyterian Parsonage, Jacques L. Wiener and Boatner houses have been enclosed to increase usable area chiefly because they could be air conditioned relatively easily—which isn’t the case at the Flesh house due to differential ceiling heights between the living room and sitting porch.