DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The King William neighborhood in San Antonio — two hundred and sixteen acres, less than a mile from the Alamo — has been quietly accumulating history for a very long time, and it didn't start with any of the grand houses you can see there today. It started with farmland.
Spanish mission farmland, to be exact. This whole stretch of fertile ground along the San Antonio River was once part of Mission San Antonio de Valero — the Alamo — and when the Spanish Government secularized that mission in 1793, those fields, rich with soil and flush with water, were distributed to local residents. Farming carried on here for decades.
Then the mid-1800s arrived, the land got subdivided, and the builders moved in. Houses started going up in the 1850s, and after the Civil War, construction really picked up steam. Now, here's where the story takes an interesting turn.
Among the new residents flooding into this corner of San Antonio were a great many Germans — people who had crossed an ocean to get to Texas, escaping political and economic turmoil back home. They put down roots. They built lives.
And in about 1866, a couple named Ernst and Emma Altgelt built their home on an unnamed street, and they gave that street a name — King William, after Wilhelm I of Prussia. That's how the neighborhood got its name, and that's the marker's own telling, not mine. The largely German community grew and diversified as San Antonio's population increased over the coming decades.
New residents included upper and middle class Mexicans who crossed the border because of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, adding yet another chapter to a neighborhood that had already seen more than its share. What they all left behind is something remarkable. King William encompasses what the marker calls the most diverse and intact collection of architecture in all of San Antonio.
Stone, brick, and frame structures — Gothic Revival, Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, Craftsman — standing side by side, dating from 1858 all the way to 1962. The neighborhood even includes two National Register districts, bounded by Cesar Chavez Boulevard to the north, Eagleland Street to the south, St. Marys Street to the east, and the San Antonio River to the west.
That river, the same one that watered those old mission fields. The whole stretch of it — from the Antebellum period through the Post-World War II era — is right there, still standing, still telling its story. Some neighborhoods remember.
King William does more than that. It preserves.
What the marker says
The King William neighborhood is located on the former farmlands of Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo). The 216-acre area, less than one mile from the former mission, includes two National Register districts. It is bounded generally by Cesar Chavez Blvd. on the north, Eagleland St. on the south, St. Marys St. on the east, and the San Antonio River on the west. When the Spanish Government secularized the mission in 1793 the fertile fields with access to abundant water were distributed to local residents. Farming continued until the mid-1800s when the area was subdivided. Houses were built beginning in the 1850s and construction increased after the Civil War. New residents included many Germans who came to Texas to escape political and economic turmoil. The community received its name in about 1866 when Ernst and Emma Altgelt built their home on an unnamed street that they called King William after Wilhelm I of Prussia. The largely German neighborhood grew and diversified as San Antonios population increased over the coming decades. New residents included upper and middle class Mexicans who crossed the border because of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. The neighborhood encompasses the most diverse and intact collection of architecture in San Antonio. Stone, brick and frame structures in the Gothic Revival, Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne and Craftsman styles date from 1858 to 1962. The neighborhood exemplifies San Antonios social, economic and architectural development from the Antebellum period through the Post-World War II era. (2012)