DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how that official marker tells it, friends — let me walk you through it my way. Now if you want a house with a story, and I mean a real story, the kind that stretches across generations and gets more interesting every time somebody new walks through the door, then pull your eyes over to the north side of San Antonio's central business district and take a long look at the Maverick-Carter house. Three stories of limestone.
Twenty-three rooms. And the year was 1893. The man who built it was William Harvey Maverick — a real estate developer, and yes, that Maverick.
His father was Samuel Augustus Maverick, who put his name on the Texas Declaration of Independence. So right from the start, you understand this family wasn't exactly strangers to leaving a mark on things. William hired a man named Alfred Giles to design the place.
Giles was born in 1853, died in 1920, and in between those two dates he became about as prominent an architect as San Antonio ever produced. The Maverick family trusted him so thoroughly that Giles designed at least nine other buildings for them — but this house, this was something else. The style is Richardsonian Romanesque, which is a fancy way of saying the building looks like it was carved out of the earth itself and dared you to knock it down.
Rusticated stone walls, round and arched windows, a rounded tower with a conical roof, a porte-cochere, and a slate roof up top. Inside, bird's eye maple and oak wainscoting, hard pine doors and window frames, sandstone mantelpieces, parquet floors. William Maverick raised his children here.
He lived in this home until 1910, when he sold it to his son Robert. Now here's where the river comes in — because when William first built that house in 1893, it sat right on the banks of the San Antonio River. You could practically lean out a window and hear the water.
But in 1920, they rechanneled the river for flood control, and just like that, the landscape shifted around the house while the house itself stood firm. Some things are like that. In 1914, an attorney named H.C.
Carter purchased the place. Carter was no small figure himself — former president of the Texas Bar Association. But if we're being honest about the history, it's his second wife Aline, born Aline Badger, who really grew into this house and made it something extraordinary.
Around 1925, Aline converted the first floor library into a chapel. Then she built an observatory on the roof. On the roof.
Because Aline Carter was a poet, an artist, an astronomer, a musician, and a humanitarian — and apparently she needed room for all of it. She taught astronomy to children. She hosted an annual Christmas party for San Antonio orphans right here in her home.
And from 1947 to 1949, the state of Texas recognized what her neighbors already knew and named her poet laureate of Texas. H.C. Carter died in 1948.
Aline had raised three children in that house, and she wasn't about to leave. She stayed until her own death in 1972, and when she went, the home remained in the Carter family — which is where it stands to this day. Think about the full run of that.
A house built in 1893 on a riverbank that would later be moved. Designed by a master architect for the son of a Declaration of Independence signer. Sold between generations, passed between families, and eventually becoming the home of a woman who put a chapel on the first floor and a telescope on the roof so she could tend to both the spiritual and the celestial without ever stepping outside.
Twenty-three rooms. One extraordinary address. And a limestone facade that has outlasted the river it once overlooked.
What the marker says
The three-story limestone Maverick-Carter house was constructed on the north side of San Antonio’s central business district in 1893 for real estate developer William Harvey Maverick, son of Texas Declaration of Independence signer Samuel Augustus Maverick. When originally built, the home was situated on the banks of the San Antonio River, which was rechanneled for flood control purposes in 1920. Maverick raised his children in the home and resided here until 1910, when he sold the house to his son, Robert. Attorney and former president of the Texas Bar Association, H.C. Carter, purchased the house in 1914. Carter’s second wife, Aline (Badger), converted the first floor library into a chapel and constructed an observatory on the roof of the home ca. 1925. Aline, a noted poet, artist, astronomer, musician and humanitarian, served as poet laureate of Texas from 1947-49. Aline also taught astronomy to children and hosted an annual Christmas party for San Antonio orphans here in her home. After raising three children and H.C.’s death in 1948, Aline continued to live here until her death in 1972; the home remains in the Carter family. The 23-room home was designed by prominent San Antonio architect Alfred Giles (1853-1920), who also designed at least nine other buildings for the Maverick family. The Richardsonian Romanesque façade features rusticated stone walls and sills, round and arched windows, a rounded tower with a conical roof, a porte-cochere and a slate roof. The house was designed with multiple parlors and bedrooms. Significant interior materials include bird’s eye maple and oak wainscoting, hard pine doors and window frames, sandstone mantelpieces and parquet floors.