Houston’s Legendary Thrash Mansion to Be Auctioned Off With $19.5 Million Guide Price — John & Becca Cason Are Going International

It’s the end of an era on the Houston social scene as John and Becca Cason Thrash have decided to put their 20,000-square-foot Memorial-area home on the market. The ultra modern mansion, which has been the scene of many of the city’s most legendary parties and charity events, is set to be sold via Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions in cooperation with Jay Monroe of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty.

The guide price is a cool $19.5 million.

For the past 25 years, the Thrash house has been Houston’s defacto party palace, attracting such A-list guests as George Clooney, Tom Brady, Anna Wintour, Prince Albert of Monaco and former presidents George HW Bush and Barack Obama, as the Thrashes have raised millions for charity with a slew of over-the-top events spiced with down-home Texas hospitality.

Located on more than three and one half acres of lush, wooded land, overlooking Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Country Club golf course, the home reflects John Thrash’s desire to pay tribute to the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.

In the mid-1990s, Thrash bought a 5,000-square-foot mid-century modern house originally designed by Houston architect Preston Bolton in 1965 and tripled its size on four separate adjoining lots. The energy entrepreneur threw his heart —  and much of his wallet — into designing an avant-garde showplace of  brick, granite, steel, glass and wood, with skylights and oversized two-story-high windows to allow the illusion of the outdoors inside.

A sprawling, catering-quality kitchen and an enclosed room with a 22-by-44-foot indoor swimming pool made the house perfect for entertaining. According to an article in Texas Monthly, even before the house was finished in 1997, Becca and John, who married in 1996 after a whirlwind courtship, threw their first charity dinner (to benefit the March of Dimes). Less than a year later they hosted a gala to benefit Best Buddies, the national charity that provides mentoring for the developmentally challenged, which catapulted them into the limelight.

The couple developed a close friendship with Best Buddies founder Anthony Kennedy Shriver and, over the years hosted a number of  memorable galas to benefit the charity. Before the 2004 Super Bowl in Houston, Olympian Carl Lewis, Nicky and Paris Hilton and The Rock showed up to watch Willie Nelson perform over the covered swimming pool at a Best Buddies Gala. A decade later, Tom Brady was the star attraction as Becca Cason Thrash had the indoor swimming pool covered in AstroTurf to resemble a football field, yard lines included.

When the pool was uncovered — which it was at most parties — guests had such a rollicking time that someone invariably fell in. During a fundraising party for Stages in 2002, where famed designer Diane von Furstenberg took one look at the house and exclaimed, “This is a temple,” three people fell in the pool before the evening was over.

It became such a running joke that after a guest accidentally fell into the pool at a dinner for George Clooney in 2012, the actor/hearthrob yelled, “Everyone in!” And at a 2015 gala, actor Kevin Spacey stepped to the edge of the pool, around which the dinner was held, and quipped, “Oh baby, I’m going in and someone’s going to fucking pay for it.”

As the crowd erupted in laughter, Becca, always looking to up the amount raised at her charity events chimed in: “Anyone give $100,000 to see it?” (She also often sold a live auction item twice when there were two competitors, cajoling the donators to pitch in another prize.)

Invariably, Becca changed outfits three times at every party as the evening progressed (earning her the nickname of “TriBecca’) while guests often lingered in the Thrash house bar area until the early morning hours.

Houston’s Most Memorable Party Abode

Other memorable events at the home have included a fundraiser for then-presidential candidate Barak Obama in 2008 and the wedding of former KPRC Channel 2 news anchor Dominique Sachse and Nick Florescu officiated by Joel Osteen in 2017. The Thrash mansion also was a favorite of the fashion crowd. More than 5,000 red roses were assembled in the pool in a V shape for a party for the fashion brand Valentino, and for a Christian Lacroix haute couture runway show, Becca removed a entire glass wall on the side of the house.

Earlier this year, a gathering to pay tribute to Becca’s mother, who had passed away, turned into one last celebration at the home as a host of friends who had partied there over the years made one last pilgrimage.

While the focal point of this Memorial mansion is the entertaining spaces (pool, kitchen, bar), it has distinct sections, including an internal entryway, a series of low-rise bedrooms, bathrooms, a study in the front, a large dining room with an atrium ceiling in the middle, and a gigantic, two-story primary suite in the back. The property also has a guesthouse, called “The Treehouse” that could be configured with one or two bedrooms.

“It’s an amazing house, both on a grand scale and in the little technical details,” listing agent Jay Monroe says. Much of the wood for the home was milled on site, with in excess of 100,000 cubic feet of custom woodwork.

The house has undergone several renovations over the years; the most recent with noted Houston designer Dennis Brackeen.

Why John and Becca Cason Thrash Are Selling

The couple says they are selling the house because they are spending much of their time in Paris, where they have an apartment, and is much closer to the Middle East, near John’s interests in the energy business.

John Thrash tells the Wall Street Journal that the couple decided to go the auction route instead of a more traditional way of selling the house because of its more definitive timeline.

“Part of our urgency is to be free to pursue these objectives out of the country,” he notes. “I think (the auction process) can spare sellers of high-end homes long waiting periods to complete a transaction.”

Bidding in the No Reserve auction is scheduled to be held May 18 through 23 via the Sotheby’s Concierge marketplace ConciergeAuctions.com, allowing buyers to bid digitally from anywhere in the world. The home is currently being shown in the afternoons by appointment to pre-qualified buyers, with inquiries from both coasts as well as Houston, Monroe says.

Although the concept is relatively new in the real estate market, more sellers of high-end homes are choosing the auction route, similar to selling a valuable painting or expensive jewelry. Several luxury homes have been sold by auction in Houston, Monroe notes. Sotheby’s is so high on the concept that it purchased Concierge Auctions in 2021.

“It creates a sense of urgency. (Sellers) don’t have to wait for years to find out what a house is worth. They can find out right away,” Monroe says.

“It’s not a fire sale,” he adds. “They’re not desperate. They realized it was the most efficient way to sell their home.”

While ready to downsize, Becca Cason Thrash admits it’s bittersweet to part with a house that has created so many lasting memories.

“It’s been quite a run,” she texted from Paris.