La Villita Historic District | |
Location | San Antonio, Texas |
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Coordinates | 29°25′13″N98°29′20″W / 29.42028°N 98.48889°W |
Built | 1845 |
Architectural style | Mission/Spanish Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 72001350 [1] |
Added to NRHP | January 20, 1972 |
La Villita Historic Arts Village is an art community in downtown San Antonio, Texas, United States. There are art galleries, stores selling souvenirs, gifts, custom jewelry, pottery, and imported Mexican folk art, as well as several restaurants in the district. La Villita connects to the San Antonio River Walk and its outdoor venue, the Arneson River Theatre. It is close to the Alamo, the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Rivercenter Mall, and HemisFair Park. It is within walking distance of most downtown hotels.
Located on the south bank of the San Antonio River, La Villita was one of San Antonio's first neighborhoods. In 1939, as ground broke on the San Antonio River Walk development, city officials led by Mayor Maury Maverick acted to preserve this part of San Antonio's history. It was a Native American settlement and then a collection of primitive brush huts, called jacales, for the Spanish soldiers (and their Indian wives and children) stationed nearby at the Mission San Antonio de Valero (an active mission from about 1718 to 1793, now better known as the Alamo). [2] After a flood in 1819 washed away most of the huts, more substantial adobe houses replaced them.
Late in the 19th century, European immigrants from Germany, France, and Italy moved into the area and soon became active in business and trades: retailers, bankers, educators, and craftsmen. The variety of architectural styles seen in La Villita's buildings reflects the cultural mix, from the one-room homes of the poor to the larger houses of the prosperous. [3]
La Villita deteriorated into a slum in the early part of the 20th century. During the Great Depression, work began on the River Walk, a make-work project funded by the Works Progress Administration which came close to La Villita. The project, led by Mayor Maury Maverick, sponsored a companion effort in 1939 by the National Youth Administration to restore and preserve this colorful part of San Antonio's history. The NYA offered classes in arts and crafts as part of its program.
Today La Villita is an arts community, and is included in the National Register of Historic Places listings in Bexar County, Texas. The galleries and shops found in one city block offer art by local and regional artists featuring oil paintings, sculptures, watercolors, metal art, rock art, textiles, copperwares, pottery, jewelry, stained glass, and regional folk art.
During four nights of the Fiesta San Antonio each April, La Villita is host to a Night in Old San Antonio with dozens of booths grouped to offer fifteen areas for various kinds of food, such as Sauerkraut Bend, China Town, Irish Flat, and the Mexican Market. The outdoor festival, with its narrow streets decorated with paper flowers and papel picado (cut paper banners), typically attracts 85,000 celebrants, many wearing costumes and unusual hats. [4] The event is a major fundraiser for the San Antonio Conservation Society. [5]
Twenty-seven houses or buildings are listed as notable in the district. Some of these are also notable individual listings. [6]
Structure Name | Image | Address | Date Built | RTHL | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aldrete House | 323 East Nueva | c1818 | 1966 [7] | |||
Aldrete House (rear house) | 323 East Nueva | c1818 | 1966 [7] | |||
Otto Bombach House | 231 South Alamo | 1847-1855 | Currently Little Rhein Steak House [8] [9] | |||
Canadian House | 206 South Presa | |||||
Caxias House | 416 B Villita | |||||
Cos House | 503 Villita | Bldg. 18 | Pre-1835 | 1965 [10] | Home of Mexican general Martín Perfecto de Cos, who herein signed the Articles of Capitulation on Dec. 9, 1835, ending the Siege of Béxar. [11] [12] | |
Jeremiah Dashiell House | 515 Villita | 1962 [13] | Aka Casa Villita [14] | |||
Diaz House | 206 Arciniega | |||||
Elmendorf House | 220 Arciniega | c.1811 | a.k.a. Elmendorf-Taylor House | |||
Faville (Florian) House | 510 Villita | Bldg. 14 | Currently River Art Group Gallery (14), B.Link Gallery (14B), and an upstairs event rental venue Florian Hall (14c) | |||
German-English School | 419 South Alamo | Bldg. 10 & 11 | 1859,1869 | 1962 [15] | Consists of two buildings erected a decade apart; Currently Bird & Pear (10) and Copper Gallery (11) | |
Gissi House | Plaza Nueva | c1854, rebuilt 1969 | ||||
Louis Gresser House | 225 South Presa | Owned by the San Antonio Conservation Society [16] | ||||
Jack Hays House | 212 South Presa | c1847 | 1962 [17] | John Coffee Hays was a Texas Ranger | ||
Henshaw House (former Martinez property) | 515 Villita | |||||
House | 420 Villita | |||||
House | 514 Villita | |||||
House | Arciniega and South Alamo | |||||
Kuhn House | 218 South Presa | |||||
Little Church of La Villita | 418 Villita | 1876 | 1962 [18] | Currently non denominational [19] | ||
McAllister Building | 301-303 South Alamo | |||||
Anton Phillip House | 422 South Presa | a.k.a. Staffer House | ||||
William Richter House | 419 South Presa | c1868 | ||||
San Martin House | 416 A South Presa | |||||
Walter C. Tynan House | 401 South Presa | mid-1880s | ||||
Yturri House | 327 South Presa | |||||
Manuel Yturri House | 325 South Presa | |||||
O'Neil Ford was an American architect of the mid-20th century in Texas, and a leading architect of the American Southwest. He is considered one of the nation's best unknown architects, and his designs merged the modernism of Europe with the indigenous qualities of early Texas architecture. In 1974 he was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Council on the Arts, the only individual to ever be given that title.
The San Antonio River Walk is a city park and special-case pedestrian street in San Antonio, Texas, one level down from the automobile street. The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops, connecting the major tourist draws such as the Shops at Rivercenter, the Arneson River Theatre, Marriage Island, La Villita, HemisFair Park, the Tower Life Building, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Pearl, and the city's five Spanish colonial missions, which have been named a World Heritage Site, which includes the Alamo. During the annual springtime Fiesta San Antonio, the River Parade features flowery floats that float down the river.
The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the U.S. state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas.
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Robert H. H. Hugman was an American architect who designed the San Antonio River Walk.
Arneson River Theater is an outdoor performance theater located on the San Antonio River Walk in the U.S. state of Texas.
Downtown San Antonio is the central business district of San Antonio, Texas and the urban core of Greater San Antonio, a metropolitan area with nearly 2.5 million people.
The architecture of the U.S. state of Texas comes from a wide variety of sources. Many of the state's buildings reflect Texas' Spanish and Mexican roots; in addition, there is considerable influence from mostly the American South as well as the Southwest. Rapid economic growth since the mid twentieth century has led to a wide variety of contemporary architectural buildings.
Clara Driscoll, was a Texas-born businesswoman, philanthropist, and historic preservationist who provided the money to save the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. In 1967, a Texas Historical Marker honoring Driscoll was placed at 2312 San Gabriel Avenue, Austin. In 1978, Texas Historical Marker number 1287 honoring Driscoll was placed at the Driscoll Family Mausoleum, Alamo Masonic Cemetery, East Commerce St., San Antonio.
The City of San Antonio is one of the oldest Spanish settlements in Texas and was, for decades, its largest city. Before Spanish colonization, the site was occupied for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. The historic Payaya Indians were likely those who encountered the first Europeans.
Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares or simply Fray Antonio de Olivares was a Spanish Franciscan who officiated at the first Catholic Mass celebrated in Texas, and he was known for contributing to the founding of San Antonio and to the prior exploration of the area. He founded, among other missions, the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, and the Acequia Madre de Valero.
Architecture in the American city of San Antonio, Texas comes from a wide variety of sources, but many of the city's buildings reflect Texas' Spanish and Mexican roots; with some influence from French builders, among others. Relatively rapid economic growth since the mid twentieth century has led to a fairly wide variety of contemporary architectural buildings.
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The Jeremiah Dashiell House is located in the Bexar County city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. Also known as Casa Villita, it was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark under that name in 1962. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Bexar County, Texas as a contributing structure of the La Villita Historic District.
The Otto Bombach House is a contributing structure in the La Villita Historic District of the Bexar County city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. The one-and-two-story native limestone structure was built by German immigrant Bombach in the mid-19th century. It was acquired and restored by the San Antonio Conservation Society (SACS), which still owns the property. Over the decades, SACS has leased the property to a variety of tenants, including the San Antonio Press Club. Currently, the building houses the Little Rhein Steak House.
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Acequia Madre de Valero is an 18th-century agricultural irrigation canal built by the Spanish and located in the Bexar County city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. When Martín de Alarcón founded San Antonio for Spain by establishing San Antonio de Valero Mission in 1718, Franciscan priest Antonio de Olivares and the Payaya and Pastia peoples, dug Acequia Madre de Valero by hand. It was vital to the missions to be able to divert and control water from the San Antonio River, in order to grow crops and to supply water to the people in the area. This particular acequia was the beginning of a much wider irrigation system. Acequia Madre de Valero ran from the area currently known as Brackenridge Park southward to what is now Hemisfair and South Alamo Street. Part of it that is not viewable by the public runs beneath the Menger Hotel. The acequia was restored in 1968 and that same year was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Marisol Deluna is an American fashion designer based in New York City who specializes in screen-printed fashion accessories, apparel and home décor sold under the label Marisol Deluna New York.
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