Biesenbach House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little color on the side. This is the story of the Biesenbach House in Bexar County. A German immigrant by the name of August Biesenbach, born in 1848, and his wife Louisa, born in 1852, broke ground on this house in 1880.

Brick walls finished in stucco, a hipped roof, Gothic Revival details. Not your average Texas frontier homestead. Somebody had taste, and somebody had ambition.

The house stood, as good houses do, through decades of change. From 1910 to 1955, it was owned and occupied by members of the Guenther Mill family. August passed in 1915, Louisa in 1916, but the house they built kept right on going.

Then comes 1955, and here is where the story takes a turn worth leaning in for. A man named O'Neil Ford walks through the door. Not just any man.

The marker calls him the famed director of the La Villita restoration project, and that title alone tells you he knew what an old building was worth. Ford purchased the house, and for the next twenty-six years it served as offices for his architecture firm. Twenty-six years.

Under that hipped roof with those Gothic Revival flourishes, Ford and his firm designed the Tower of the Americas in HemisFair Park, and numerous buildings for Trinity University. Work that shaped a city's skyline, drawn up in a house that August and Louisa Biesenbach put together back in 1880. Some houses just know how to pick their people.

What the marker says

A German immigrant, August Biesenbach (1848-1915) and his wife, Louisa (1852-1916), began construction of this house in 1880. The walls of the house are stucco over brick with a hipped roof and Gothic Revival details. From 1910 to 1955, the house was owned and occupied by members of the Guenther Mill family. In 1955, O'Neil Ford, the famed director of the La Villita restoration project, purchased the house which served as offices for his architecture firm for the next 26 years, during which time he designed the Tower of the Americas in HemisFair Park and numerous buildings for Trinity University. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2016