DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, the King William neighborhood in San Antonio has seen some stories, but let me tell you about two Alabama natives who came to Texas and left their mark on just about everything they touched. Joseph Madison Nix and his wife Birdie Lanier Nix pulled up to San Antonio in the early 1890s, and J.M. — a man who apparently could not look at an empty lot without seeing a building on it — got straight to work as a businessman building hotels and other structures.
The city, you might say, was a willing canvas. Then comes 1899, and J.M. and Birdie do something that strikes me as wonderfully deliberate. They build not one house, but two.
Twin houses, side by side, at 434 and 432 King William Street. Now the one that carries their name — the work of an architect named Atlee B. Ayres — is what they call Free Classic design.
And Free Classic, friend, is a phrase that does not disappoint in the delivery. You've got a dominant front gabled roof sweeping over the whole affair, a Palladian attic vent sitting up there like it knows exactly how distinguished it looks, paired box columns anchoring the front, and New England style shingle patterning wrapping it all together. A little bit of everywhere, right there on one Texas street corner.
The Nixes held onto the property until 1912, then sold it and kept right on building. Kept building until their names were attached to landmarks all across San Antonio and South Texas — the Nix Professional Building, the Medical Arts Building, structures that still carry the weight of that ambition. Two people from Alabama, a pair of twin houses on King William, and a skyline that remembers them.
That is one way to arrive in a city and make it yours.
What the marker says
Alabama natives Joseph Madison and Birdie Lanier Nix moved to San Antonio in the early 1890s. J.M. was a businessman who built hotels and other structures. In 1899, the couple built twin houses at 434 and 432 King William. The Free Classic design of this house, the work of Atlee B. Ayres, features a dominant front gabled roof, Palladian attic vent, paired box columns and New England style shingle patterning. The Nixes sold the property in 1912 and later built landmarks throughout San Antonio and South Texas, including the local Nix Professional Building and the Medical Arts Building. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2006