DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice it found. Now, San Antonio has always had a way of drawing people in and putting them to work — and Anton Wulff was exactly the kind of man that city was hungry for. He made the crossing from Germany in 1848, landed in Texas, and got to building a life.
By the time the dust settled, he was a prosperous merchant, a City Alderman, and — here's a title you don't hear every day — the first City Park Commissioner the city of San Antonio ever had. The first. Nobody held that chair before him.
But a man of that standing needs a home to match, and so in 1869 and into 1870, Anton Wulff built one. Italianate style — the kind of architecture that says, quietly but firmly, that the man inside has arrived. He built it for his wife Maria, born in 1834, and for their eleven children.
Eleven. That house wasn't just a home; it was a small civilization. Anton died in 1884.
Maria, though — Maria kept on, all the way to 1908. She outlasted him by nearly a quarter century. In 1902, the residence was sold to Arthur Guenther, owner of the Liberty Flour Mill.
The Guenther family moved in and stayed put, occupying the home clear through until 1950. Half a century of one family under those Italianate eaves. And the house?
It was restored in 1974 by the San Antonio Conservation Society. So what Anton Wulff raised up for Maria and eleven children back in 1869 is still standing — still telling the story. Some things in Texas are just too solid to let go.
What the marker says
After migrating to Texas from his native Germany in 1848, Anton Wulff (1822-1884) became a prosperous San Antonio merchant. He served as a City Alderman and as the first City Park Commissioner. He built this Italianate style home in 1869-1870 for his wife Maria (1834-1908) and their 11 children. The residence was sold in 1902 to Arthur Guenther, owner of the Liberty Flour Mill, whose family occupied it until 1950. It was restored (1974) by the San Antonio Conservation Society.