Hynes-Balthrope House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Hynes-Balthrope House. Now settle in, because this old girl has lived more lives than most folks dare to dream about. We're talkin' about a house built in 1874, out of longleaf pine, standing proud on Austin Street with full-length gallery porches running the whole length of her, square columns, dentils, brackets, the whole classical revival treatment.

John Hynes wanted something worthy of that pedigree, and he got it. A San Antonio architect named Viggo Kohler drew it up, and whatever Kohler charged, the result speaks for itself more than a century later. Now here's the part that'll catch you off guard.

Before there was a Catholic church in town, circuit riding priests coming all the way from Refugio made that house the very center of the Catholic community. Picture it: a family home doubling as a congregation's spiritual anchor, priests riding in, gathering the faithful under those gallery porches. That went on until 1889, when a church was finally built and the house could go back to being, well, a house.

Then came 1906, and the house did something houses don't usually do. It moved. Picked up and relocated to South Church Street, then converted into apartments, shared between the Brundretts and the Sorensons under the same longleaf pine roof.

By 1928 it had settled back into life as a single family dwelling, first for the Ingersolls, then the Wrens. Then 1958 arrives, and the Charles Balthrope family buys the place as a vacation home. Vacation home.

As if a building that once served as a makeshift parish could ever be just a getaway. And then came Hurricane Celia. The Balthropes didn't walk away.

They restored it, refurbished it, kept that 1874 frame standing against whatever the coast had to throw at it. The house stayed in the Balthrope family all the way until 1996. One hundred and fifty years of longleaf pine, and it's still out there on South Church Street, holdin' its columns up like it's got somethin' left to prove.

What the marker says

This 1874 house of longleaf pine features full-length gallery porches and such classical revival elements as square columns, dentils and brackets. It was built on Austin Street for the John Hynes family and designed by San Antonio architect Viggo Kohler. Circuit riding priests from Refugio made the house the center of the Catholic community until a church was built in 1889. The house was moved to South Church Street in 1906 and converted to apartments shared by the Brundretts and Sorensons. By 1928 it was again a single family dwelling for the Ingersoll and then Wren families. In 1958, the Charles Balthrope family bought the house as a vacation home. They restored and refurbished the house after Hurricane Celia, and it remained in their family until 1996.