Protestant Home for Destitute Children

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll tell it to you straight. Somewhere back in 1886, a group of folks in San Antonio had a problem on their hands, and they decided to do something about it. They organized the San Antonio Home for Destitute Children, and that name right there tells you everything you need to know about the weight of what they were taking on.

Children with nowhere to go. That was the work. By December of 1890, the Home had grown into something more permanent, moving into a new building and carrying a new name: the Protestant Home for Destitute Children.

Now, the man who designed that building was James Riely Gordon, and the marker calls him a noted Texas architect. Noted. That word does some work.

Gordon didn't build a plain box and call it charity. He put together what the marker describes as an unusual mixture of stylistic elements, and he built it with the intention that it would blend right in with the neighborhood around it. A place of need that didn't want to look like one.

The orphanage stayed at that site, doing that work, all the way until 1926, when it packed up and relocated to larger facilities. Thirty-six years under that roof. After the children moved on, the building kept living.

It became a Catholic mission. Then residential apartments. Different purposes, different people, same walls that James Riely Gordon put together with something unusual in mind.

That building has held more stories than any one marker can hold.

What the marker says

Organized in 1886 as the San Antonio Home for Destitute Children, the Protestant Home for Destitute Children moved into this building in December 1890. The orphanage continued in operation at this site until 1926, when it relocated to larger facilities. This building, designed by noted Texas architect James Riely Gordon, features an unusual mixture of stylistic elements and was intended to blend well with its residential surroundings. Later uses of the structure included a Catholic mission and residential apartments. (1991)