DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Toltec Apartments — straight from the record, in my own words. Now, every building on a city block has a story, but some of them carry a shadow right from the very start. The Toltec Apartments in San Antonio is one of those.
The year was 1913. A man named Dr. Augustus Maverick had a vision for a proper apartment house in the heart of downtown San Antonio.
He brought in Ernest P. Behles to design it — and Behles did not disappoint. He drew up something worth building: three stories of concrete and masonry, shaped like a U, faced in red brick dressed up with white stone detailing, and anchored by a concrete and cast iron staircase that climbs all the way from the basement to the third floor.
The Gordon-Jones construction company was hired to bring that vision to life. But here's where the story turns heavy. Dr.
Augustus Maverick was tragically murdered before the building was ever completed. The man who commissioned that apartment house never saw a single tenant walk through the door. The Maverick family, though — they carried on.
And that name was no small thing in San Antonio. The Mavericks had played an important role in the city's early downtown development, and the family held onto that building for a long time. Decades, in fact.
Family members themselves were among the tenants, and the property stayed in Maverick hands all the way until 1996. Now, what Behles designed sits squarely in the early twentieth century classical revival style, and the remarkable thing is that it still does. The original design, the hardware, the finishes — they're all still there.
That architectural integrity, as the marker puts it, has been preserved. So the next time you find yourself standing outside the Toltec Apartments, looking up at that red brick and white stone, think about what it took to finish it — and who never got the chance to see it finished. Some buildings are monuments to their builders.
This one might be a monument to something harder than that.
What the marker says
TOLTEC APARTMENTS Designed by Ernest P. Behles and built by the Gordon-Jones construction company, the three-story concrete and masonry Toltec apartment house was constructed in 1913 for Dr. Augustus maverick, who was tragically murdered before its completion. The maverick family played an important role in San Antonio’s early downtown development. Tenants included family members who owned the property until 1996. Prominent aspects of the building include its u-shaped layout, white stone detailing on the exterior red brick, and a concrete and cast iron staircase that rises from the basement to the third floor. Constructed in early 20th century classical revival style, the building’s distinct architectural integrity is preserved in its original design, hardware and finishes. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2014