ScoutSA 2021 Year in Review
Happy New Year! Join us in a look back at 2021 as ScoutSA celebrates another year of discovery and exploration of San Antonio’s special places, people, and traditions!
Outreach and Community Engagement
The year began in the classroom - virtually, of course - with another wonderful group of students in the St. Mary’s Public History department. Engaging in a service-learning experience, the students developed projects, pitched their ideas, and then formed teams to produce place-based digital projects that addressed gaps in the historic record. The resulting websites take you on tours through time, highlighting intangible heritage found at panaderías and in community murals, the amazing story of civilian and military aviation represented by Stinson Air Field, and the progressive marketing campaigns of Butter Krust bakery in the 1960s that featured local African American families. Browse their finished products on the San Antonio StoryScapes website!
We were also fortunate to have Edgar Velazquez Reynald join us as an intern during the spring semester. Edgar’s contributions included research and writing, including a story about Roseville Housing Trust and Alpha Tau Omega published during Black History Month. Edgar also completed an exciting Story Map project that we’ll share later this year!
ScoutSA staff took many opportunities to share knowledge with the public through classes, lectures, and other educational events. We participated in OHP’s Preservation Month celebration with another edition of ScoutSA’s Virtual Classroom. This time, Jessica Anderson showed participants how to research historic homes using digital resources available for free through the public library. In October, Dr. Christina Wirsching invited ScoutSA to speak to students enrolled in a Community Development course in the Urban and Regional Planning Department. We also taught several classes for San Antonio Oasis, sharing stories about local parks and plazas, historic districts, and New Deal projects. Is your group/class/organization interested in hearing more about ScoutSA? Email jessica@sapreservation.com to inquire about our availability!
Designations, Assessments, Survey
Designations and Assessments
In early 2021, ScoutSA completed a fascinating Historic Assessment for St. Philip’s College. The Bowden Building was constructed between 1952 and 1956. Executive architects named that year for the St. Philip's campus project was Ayres and Ayres, under supervising architects Phelps, Dewees and Simmons. The building is named after Artemisia Bowden, who served as dean of St Philip's Junior College. Bowden moved to San Antonio from Georgia in 1902 to run a sewing school that, under her leadership, became St Philip's Junior College in 1927. Bowden served the school until her retirement in 1954, during which time the San Antonio Union Junior College board heard and subsequently denied a petition from St Philip's to integrate campuses and allow black students to enroll in San Antonio College. Read more about Artemisia Bowden in this ScoutSA Snapshot from 2021.
More than a dozen new landmarks joined the list of designated places in San Antonio in 2021. In Council District 1, these included the new headquarters of Lake|Flato Architects, Inc at 311 3rd St; two Queen Anne residences in the Lavaca neighborhood, one on Lotus and one on Leopold; a historic filling station in Alta Vista; and a couple of properties in Beacon Hill: the Liz Davies Greenspace and a brick Craftsman bungalow on West Craig Place. Four homes were designated in Council District 2: an 1892 vernacular home on Brooks, an 1897 structure designed by noted architect Frederick Bowen Gaenslen on Montana, a 1918 Craftsman home on Nevada, and a 1919 Queen Anne in Government Hill. In Council District 5, an 1893 Queen Anne home located in the proposed Buena Vista Historic District was designated as a local landmark. Two significant properties in Council District 9 earned landmark status as well: the new KIPP campus at the corner of Callaghan Rd and Stonehaven Rd featuring two large 1930s Spanish Eclectic residences, and a vernacular stone residence at 10314 Dreamland built c.1932.
Newly Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Several places achieved listing on the National Register of Historic Places this year! The Aurora Apartment Hotel, located at 509 Howard in the Tobin Hill neighborhood, opened in 1930 facing Crockett Park. Its brick façade features a mixture of Spanish Revival, Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and Gothic Revival influences with ornate cast stone ornamentation. Also located in Tobin Hill, Borden’s Creamery (875 E Ashby) was designed by Atlee B. and Robert M. Ayres with a distinctive Art Modern influence. The streamline stucco building housed the Borden Creamery from its opening in 1933 until the building was sold in 1995. The site, which was also designated as a local landmark in 2021, is currently being redeveloped to accommodate a multifamily residential complex. The Sacred Heart Chapel at Our Lady of the Lake (411 SW 24th Street) was designed by Leo M.J. Dielmann in a Late Gothic Revival style. Completed in 1923, the Chapel features stunning architectural detailing inside and out, including stained glass windows and a gold leaf apse ceiling as well as broad perpendicular arches, buttresses, and tower spires on the exterior.
Survey
ScoutSA undertook two large survey projects to identify potentially significant historic resources in 2021. Within the Jefferson Heights Neighborhood Association boundary, staff surveyed a 3x3 square block area with approximately 150 properties, over 2/3 of which were built prior to 1931. Dominant styles included Craftsman, Vernacular, and Folk Victorian. Additionally, we’ve been working to complete a large survey of the Tobin Hill neighborhood. The purpose of this survey is to certify the existing local historic district to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and identify potentially eligible areas for expansion and additional local district designations. Look for more formal announcements regarding the completion of these projects, including comprehensive survey reports and community engagement components, in 2022!