Tanglewood

 

Just outside Loop 610 and Beltway 8, this small but advantageously located pocket is best known as the longtime residence of the late George H.W. and Barbara Bush as well as the storied Houston Country Club. Both the Galleria and the Uptown area are minutes away.

 

In 1948, the developer who bought up acres of flat prairie here named his soon-to-be dream community after his daughter’s favorite book, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales. Today, the quiet neighborhood, with its decades-old live oaks and original ranch-style homes, still has a timeless feel.

 

Tanglewood is home to a number of high-profile Houstonians who appreciate its laidback energy and lavish manors. Preservation-minded residents band together in groups like the Tanglewood Garden Club to keep the neighborhood in tip-top shape.

 

Though the Galleria, perhaps Houston’s most famous shopping mecca, is located just south, Tanglewood has its own homegrown boutiques too, like the Paris Texas Apparel Co., as well as distinctive eateries, like the Del, Roegels Barbecue, and Adair Kitchen, along a bustling stretch of S. Voss Road.

 

The mile-long granite path that runs down the middle of Tanglewood Road is beloved by residents, who enjoy the trail’s ample shade, teak benches, and myriad opportunities to run into friends and neighbors along the way.

 

Of the 1,200 or so homes in Tanglewood, most of the more modest ranch-style homes that first sprang up here have been replaced with considerably larger two-story English-style brick beauties and sleek Mediterraneans with red-tile roofs. The generous lots are a deserving draw.

 

Houston’s infamous traffic may be lurking just a few minutes away, but once you drive into Tanglewood, there’s something about the gently curving roads--and the impressively large, dignified old-growth oaks that line them--that immediately takes stress levels down a few notches.