Wallace E. Pratt House, International Style residence in Salt Flat, Texas.
The Wallace E. Pratt House is an International Style residence in Salt Flat that features glass walls and limestone construction spread across its length. It sits at the edge of Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Wallace Pratt, a petroleum geologist with Humble Oil & Refining Company, began building this house in 1941 on the east slope of the Guadalupe Mountains, after finding his earlier McKittrick Canyon lodge prone to flooding. Architect Newton Bevin of Long Island designed it and contractor Ed Birdsall built it; work stopped during World War II and was completed in 1945. The Pratts lived here until 1963 and donated the house with 5,632 acres to the future national park.
The house's name, Ship on the Desert, reflects its design as an oil tanker at sea, a nod to Wallace Pratt's career with the Humble Oil & Refining Company. The entrance door is painted purple, the colour of the women's suffrage movement, in honour of Iris Calderhead Pratt, a former suffragist.
The house is located at Pratt Drive and McKittrick Road and can only be visited through guided tours offered by the National Park Service on select dates throughout the year. Check ahead to see when these tours are scheduled, as visiting options are limited.
The entrance door is painted a bold purple, the colour of the women's suffrage movement, in tribute to Iris Calderhead Pratt, a former suffragist. The house itself was shaped to resemble an oil tanker at sea, a nod to Wallace Pratt's career with the Humble Oil & Refining Company.
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