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This imposing house in the Mediterranean villa style is ponderous in scale. In contrast to its old-fashioned design, the house is built of cast-in-place concrete, as is its rear garage/apartment building. The Abshire House occupies the only estate lot in Griffing Residential Park, Port Arthur's first garden subdivision and, from 1929 until 1983, a separately incorporated suburban town. The community was developed by commercial nurseryman and horticulturist W. C. Griffing on what had been, from 1906 to 1913, the site of Griffing Nurseries. With its curvilinear, tree-canopied streets, Griffing Park is spatially distinct from the rest of Port Arthur.