Bistro Calais restaurant is located in Houston's exclusive River Oaks.

2811 Bammel Lane
Houston, Texas
77098 (map)

Tel:

713.529.1314

Fax:

713.529.8481

Closed Monday

Tuesday through Saturday

11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
5:30 p.m. - Close

Sunday

11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

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Built by the De Chaumes family, circa 1880, at 1209 Hadley Street, the De Chaumes estate was a city block bounded by San Jacinto, Caroline, Webster and Hadley Streets and included the large original home at 2203 San Jacinto Street and two smaller family homes including this cottage. Michael De Chaumes immigrated to Washington D.C. from Paris, France in 1825 and moved to Houston in 1837. He was Houston’s first significant architect supervising construction of the Texas Capital Building in Austin in 1852 – 1854. He designed Houston’s first major school, the Houston Academy, in 1858, the County Courthouse on Congress Avenue in 1860 and numerous other structures.

Henry Michael De Chaumes, the oldest son, was apprenticed as a tinner in Galveston and during the Civil War was a gun manufacturer for the Confederate Army. He returned to Houston where his name was well remembered in the hardware business in connection with the firm of De Chaumes and Dunn on Travis Street opposite what is now Market Square.

On August 19th 1983 the house was purchased from direct descendants of the De Chaumes family and on January 27th, 1984 the cottage was moved to its present location at 2811 Bammel Lane. The entire structure, roofline, cypress siding, window frames and many windows were preserved. The reception room and three front rooms were retained as originally designed. The cottage is an excellent example of nineteenth century Texas architecture for middle and upper – class residences.