Thorntree Slate

The natural stone products that Thorntree purveys were formed in nature millions of years ago. While we havent been around nearly that long, founder Stuart Rae is no newcomer hes accumulated almost 40 years of stone knowledge. Stuart and his dad, Clive, set up shop in 1980, shortly after the Rae family arrived in Texas from South Africa (listen to Stuarts accent). Their first shop was a small office and adjoining warehouse on West 34th Street. From there, they primarily sold slate roof tiles to a small but forward-thinking group of custom home builders. Father and son then went on to calling on architects (from the big book known back then as the Houston Yellow Pages), showing Thorntrees first line of natural slate flooring in five colors, imported from South Africa. Eventually, in the early 90s they opened a small showroom in Highland Village, near the Galleria, which introduced Thorntrees name and unique slate products into the retail Houston market. This showroom space was...