history
The Frayser Bauhaus was constructed circa 1946 as a residence. It is an Art Moderne/International Style building identified by its smooth wall surface, flat roof with a ledge coping, horizontal elements, curved windows, glass block, and asymmetrical façade.
Although the popular period for this style was generally 1920-1940, it was never common. This property is one of the few surviving examples scattered found throughout the country.
Maxwell McCall Millstead (1905-1982) was a pharmacist who owned the Millstead Construction Company. He was a member of the Memphis Homebuilders Association, chariman and king of the Sphinx Crewe and a graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy. He was married to Mayme L. Holland Millstead. The socially prominent Millstead also developed the Cherry Road Subdivision in East Memphis in the early 1950s. Millstead died in June 1982.
Millstead was builder of the house but it is not known if it was a custom house or if he purchased plans for it. In February 1947 Millstead sold the property to John and Leonora Morrison for $10,000. It was owner-financed by Millstead. John Paul Morrison was a public account born in Colorado. Morrison died in September, 1964.
The Morrisons lived there until August 1957 when they sold it to Ersal and Mary Crawford. On January 1, 1958, the City of Memphis annexed the community.
The first listing for the address is in 1959 City Directory which shows Crawford Clinic at the address. 1963 Memphis City Directory lists the property as the Crawford and Head Clinic. The Crawfords lived on Linden in Midtown and partner Thomas Head and his wife lived at 1669 Mary Drive.
In 1965, the Crawfords sold the property to Thomas and Virginia Head. In 1968, the City Directory now lists it as Glenn Head Medical. Two years later in 1970, the Heads sell the building to Head & Tosh, Inc., a Tennessee Medical Corporation. Then in 1973, it becomes as Head and Tosh, Medical Doctors with partner John W. Tosh.
The partnership lasted until May 1995 when they sold the property to Dr. Claudette J. Shephard. Dr. Shephard sold it to the present owner, Gabrion Properties, in April 2017.
Research by Judith Johnson, “The House Detective”
Millstead Proves You Can Build Now—With Patience
Memphis builders and manufacturers told Max Millstead he didn’t have a chance anytime soon to build the kind of house he had in mind.
But Mr. Millstead had a lot of friends and a lot of resolution, so today the ultra-modern white dream house he conjured up looks down from its hill on Highway 51 N. in Frayser.
Mr. and Mrs. Millstead haven’t acquired all the furniture for their house yet, altho they’ve already moved in, but they’re finding what they want piece by piece.
The two-story house, a pleasing combination of geometric shapes, is entirely a product of the Millsteads’ imagination and built in their own subdivision. In fact, its workroom doubles as an office in which Mr. Millstead handles the business of constructing other houses on the 78 lots in surrounding Terrace Park, which he owns. He is building five houses at a time, and has just finished the first group.
The Millstead house contains 10 tons of structural steel, all of which was hard to get. Most difficult of all were the curved steel frames for the circular living room windows. They were specially made.
Interior is decorated along two entirely different lines. The downstairs rooms are furnished in plastics, glass and smooth fabrics as modern as the house upstairs.
Upstairs, the game room hits an almost rustic note, with knotty pine walls and ceiling, hunting trophies and informal furniture. The upstairs bath and the stairwell also are to be walled in knotty pine. The game room opens onto a tiled second-story porch, that is to be covered with a colorful canopy.
Downstairs rooms include a living room, dining room, bedroom, workroom, kitchen, bath and small foyer.
A huge circular couch of four sections will line the window wall of the living room. Sheer peach curtains overhang the seven wide glass panel and heavy drapes may be drawn across them. A modern white fireplace is at the other end of the large room. A flick of the light switch turns on electric logs, radio and table lamps. There is no overhead lighting.
The bedroom has a huge double-doored closet that is cedar-lined.
Walls of the adjoining bath are lined in carrara glass of ivory and trimmed in corrugated clear glass.
The kitchen likewise is to be walled in shining blue-green structural carrara and sliding cabinet doors are of fluted glass. A breakfast nook is upholstered in zebra-striped fabric.
The Millsteads couldn’t decide where to put the garage, so Mr. Millstead finally decided to dig a hole “and put the darn thing under the house.”
Mr. Millstead was a patrolman with the Police Department until he quit three months ago to spend more time on his home and subdivision.
