Elias and Lucy Edmonds House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Elias and Lucy Edmonds House in Bexar County. Now settle in, because this one's got layers. A Confederate officer who became a Virginia state legislator, a lawyer who built one of the first houses in a neighborhood that would become one of San Antonio's most storied, and a wife who turned the grounds of that house into a school.

That is not a quiet life. That is a life with intention. Elias Edmonds married Lucy Noyes Hall in 1871, and six years on, in 1877, they put up one of the very first houses in what would become the King William neighborhood.

Think about that. One of the first. They were not following a trend.

They were starting one. Elias ran a successful law practice, which is the kind of thing that sounds respectable and understated until you remember what it took to build a legal career in Texas in the 1870s. And Lucy, well, Lucy did not sit still either.

She began and operated a high school for young ladies right there on the grounds of their home. The house and the schoolhouse, all in one place. After the Edmondses, the house passed to a prominent physician named Amos Graves and his wife Katherine, who was a notable realtor in her own right.

They made some additions and alterations, shaping the place further. Then came Dr. Otto and Virginia Potthast, who lived there for more than forty years.

More than forty years in one house. Generations of San Antonio passed by that deep full-height front porch and gallery while the Potthasts stayed put. The house itself is no wallflower.

Two stories of dressed and rough cut limestone, that front porch stretching the full height of the facade, substantial is the word the marker uses, and it earns every syllable. Three families, one house, one corner of King William that was being written before the neighborhood even had its full name. That limestone is still standing.

What the marker says

Former Confederate officer and Virginia state legislator Elias Edmonds married Lucy Noyes Hall in 1871, and in 1877, they built one of the first houses in the King William neighborhood. Elias was a successful lawyer, and Lucy began and operated a "high school for young ladies" on the grounds of their home. Prominent physician Amos Graves and his wife Katherine, a notable realtor, next owned the house, making some additions and alterations. Dr. Otto and Virginia Potthast lived here for more than forty years. The substantial two-story house features dressed and rough cut limestone and a deep full-height front porch and gallery. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2008