DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice that carries it down the road. Now, San Antonio has seen its share of grand buildings, but this one — this one has a story worth slowing down for. In 1904, a man named Atlee B.
Ayres put pencil to paper. He was a renowned architect, and he'd been commissioned to design a house for the family of May Bock and David J. Woodward.
David was a prominent businessman and contractor — the kind of man who knew exactly what it took to raise something that would last. And last it did. The house stands as an imposing example of Classical Revival style architecture, the sort of thing that makes you straighten up just looking at it.
But here's what the marker wants you to know, and it's worth lingering on: this wasn't just Atlee Ayres's vision. May Bock Woodward was instrumental in designing the house. She worked closely with Ayres on the plans herself.
So when David Woodward — the builder — set to constructing it, he was building something his wife had helped shape from the ground up. There's something poetic in that, a woman's hand guiding the pencil, a husband's hands raising the walls. Then the years turned, the way they do.
David passed, and May found herself alone in that grand Classical Revival house. In 1926, she sold it to the Woman's Club of San Antonio. A home became a clubhouse.
A family's story folded itself into the life of a community. That house in Bexar County — designed by a renowned architect, shaped by a determined woman, built by her husband — it's still standing, still imposing. Some things are just built to outlast the telling.
What the marker says
(The Woman's Club of San Antonio Clubhouse) In 1904 renowned architect Atlee B. Ayres designed this house for the family of May Bock and David J. Woodward, a prominent businessman and contractor. May was instrumental in designing the house, working closely with Ayres on the plans. David Woodward was the builder. May sold the house to the Woman's Club of San Antonio in 1926 after the death of her husband. The house is an imposing example of Classical Revival style architecture. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1995