The Caile House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight from the stone. Out here in Bexar County stands a caliche block home — and if you don't know caliche, well, you're not in Texas long enough yet — a house built by a man named Robert Caile, who came all the way from England to do it. He purchased the property in 1857, and pretty soon after that, he was stacking those caliche blocks and raising himself a home.

Now Robert Caile was not a man content to leave well enough alone. After the Civil War, he went ahead and enlarged the place with an addition — because apparently what he'd already built wasn't quite enough house for his ambitions. Can't fault him for that.

The land itself carries a history even older than Caile's ambitions. It was part of a Spanish land grant — 1812 — made to one Delores Alderete. So by the time Robert Caile ever set foot on it, that ground had already changed hands across empires and generations.

Caile held it, and the family held it after him when he died in 1879, right up until 1894. Nearly four decades that family kept their name on this place. Then along came Jacob Hotz — a farmer, and the marker makes sure you know it — who bought it as rental property.

Jacob Hotz died in 1928, and after that, relatives carried the house forward into the 1940s. One man's home from England, one Spanish land grant from 1812, a farmer named Hotz, and decades of family holding on. That caliche doesn't crack easy, and apparently neither did the people who called this place theirs.

What the marker says

This caliche block home was built by Robert Caile (d. 1879) soon after he purchased the property in 1857. Caile, who came to Texas from England, later enlarged the residence with an addition during the post-Civil War period. A part of the 1812 Spanish land grant to Delores Alderete, the site remained in Caile family until 1894, when it was purchased as rental property by Jacob Hotz, Farmer. After his death in 1928, relatives owned the house until the 1940s. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966