DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my right by the story. This piece of San Antonio ground has been around the block a time or two — and I mean that in the most historic sense possible. The land itself traces back to the lower grounds of Mission San Antonio de Valero, then passed into the Vicente Amador Spanish Grant, carrying all that old-world weight on its shoulders before anybody even thought about putting a house on it.
In 1869, a merchant by the name of Russel C. Norton bought the site. Now Norton didn't rush.
He let that land sit for a spell, and then in 1876 he started building. What grew up on that lot wasn't just a house — it was a house that kept growing, kept reaching, kept adding to itself like a good story does. A second story went up.
Then came a Victorian Gingerbread rear gallery — and if that phrase doesn't make you slow down and picture something worth seein', I don't know what will. And then, as if the house hadn't already made its point, somebody went and added an Italian Renaissance Revival Tower. A tower.
In San Antonio. This place had ambitions. After Norton, the property passed to rancher Edwin Polk, and then to a man the marker calls a renowned trail boss and cattleman — Ike T.
Pryor. That title, trail boss, carries real weight out here in Texas, and Pryor wore it. The mansion changed hands, as grand things sometimes do, and it might've faded — but in 1968, business leader Walter N.
Mathis stepped in and restored it. The Norton-Polk-Mathis House had started as Spanish mission land, survived grants and merchants and cattlemen, and it was still standing. Some places just refuse to be finished.
What the marker says
This site, from lower lands of Mission San Antonio De Valero, later part of the Vicente Amador Spanish Grant, was bought 1869 by merchant Russel C. Norton, who began building in 1876. HOuse grew with additions of a second story, Victorian Gingerbread rear Gallery, and Italian Renaissance Revival Tower. Later owners were rancher Edwin Polk and renowned trail Bossa and cattleman Ike T. Pryor. Business leader Walter N. Mathis restored Mansion in 1968.