The Architectural Legacy of Alfred Giles
The Architectural Legacy of Alfred Giles

Author: Mary Carolyn Hollers George

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13:

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"The Architectural Legacy of Alfred Giles focuses on architect Alfred Giles' work in Texas and Northern Mexico. Giles, who practiced from the 1870s to the 1920s after emigrating from England, designed buildings reflecting a great variety of styles derived from architectural forms of the past, combining them in original ways. Giles produced designs for unpretentious domestic residences and showy mansions, county courthouses, and commercial and institutional structures all over Texas. He adapted and combined stylistic elements with restraint, sobriety, and simplicity." "In the Architectural Legacy of Alfred Giles, Mary Carolyn Hollers George highlights the Giles buildings in Texas that have been heroically restored in the last thirty years, many as a result of the leadership of the San Antonio Conversation Society, the Texas Historical Commission, and various advocacy groups. An appendix details Giles' accomplishments in northern Mexico. Color photographs of the restored sites, taken by architect Eugene George, complement black-and-white historical photographs."--BOOK JACKET.

Rosengren's Books
Rosengren's Books

Author: Mary George

Publisher: Wings Press

Published: 2015-01-01

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 1609403800

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Virtually every San Antonio citizen over a certain age with any interest in literature will have vivid memories of Rosengren's Books. It was the absolute center of literary culture not only in San Antonio, but in Texas, for decades. Indeed, from the 1930s to the 1980s, Rosengren's Books was considered one of the finest bookstores between New York and San Francisco. It was a mid-continent haven for writers as diverse as Frost, John Dos Pasos, J. Frank Dobie, and Larry McMurtry. Rosengren's Books: An Oasis for Mind and Spirit is the story of a great American family of independent booksellers and the important literary institution they created. Beginning as a rare book store in Chicago, Frank and Florence Rosengren brought the store to San Antonio, Texas, in 1935. Located in various downtown locations, it became most well known as the charming book shop behind the Alamo, where it was visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world. At the heart of the story is Florence Rosengren, whom former San Antonio mayor Phil Hardberger calls the "Sylvia Beach of South Texas" and Texas Observer founding editor Ronnie Dugger described as "the chief guardian of civilization from here to Mexico City."

Mary Bonner
Mary Bonner

Author: Mary Carolyn Hollers George

Publisher: Trinity University Press

Published: 2018-01-31

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 1595348379

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Mary Bonner: Impressions of a Printmaker is the definitive account of the life of an iconic Texas artist known for her delicate etchings and prints of the places and people that make South Texas unique. Mary Bonner begins with the artist’s early years in San Antonio and continues through her awakening as an artist at the Woodstock colony in upstate New York in summer 1922 to her years in France under the instruction of master printmaker Édouard Henri Léon. In Paris, Bonner began entering her work in juried exhibitions, and these early Paris prints were met with some acclaim. She came into her own when she began experimenting with a more innovative and modern style, exemplified by Les cowboys, a three-part frieze inspired by memories of her family’s ranch in Texas. After several years of dedicated study in Paris, Bonner began splitting her time between San Antonio and Paris. By 1928 she had begun to take on the causes of art and conservation in San Antonio, devoting less time to her own work. She spent the last years of her life at the family residence in San Antonio and died in 1935 at age forty-eight. Bonner’s legacy, both as an accomplished artist and as a steadfast advocate for the arts, lives on, especially in San Antonio. Mary Bonner is copublished with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Villa Finale. The book will accompany a retrospective of Bonner’s work at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. This edition includes a new preface, an introduction by McNay curator Lyle Williams, and an afterword by Jane Lewis, director of Villa Finale.

Pearl Sets the Pace
Pearl Sets the Pace

Author: Mary Carolyn Hollers George

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2020-10-30

Total Pages: 107

ISBN-13: 1933337915

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A family business frequently involves enough drama to fill a book—this one in fact. Pearl Sets the Pace tells the story of two landmark companies and a mighty dynasty. It begins in 1883, with the arrival of German brew master Otto Koehler in the bustling city of San Antonio, Texas. He establishes himself as one of the founders of a firm that eventually becomes the Pearl Brewery. In 1914, his murder at the hands of a disgruntled mistress becomes front-page news across the nation. Emma, his grieving (but tough-as-nails) widow, assumes leadership of the company and keeps it afloat during the dark days of Prohibition. In 1941, Margaret Bosshardt one of Emma’s granddaughters, marries David Earl Pace. After World War II, the young couple formulate a secret recipe for Mexican salsa. Like mad scientists, they experiment in their home kitchen and try out their concoctions on friends. From such humble beginnings grew a mighty enterprise, a real-world manifestation of the American Dream. By the early 1990s, Dave and Margaret’s picante sauce was the top-selling Mexican food condiment in the world. Their descendants sold the business to the Campbell Soup Company for $1.1 billion. Through murders and mistresses, Depression and divorces, booms and busts, a passion for product sustained the Koehler-Pace clan. To make something, not simply for their neighbors to buy, but also something that would become integral to their daily lives. That became their defining principle. Yes, it defined them, but it also characterized their city. Can anyone really imagine San Antonio without beer and picante sauce? This is the story of a proud, complicated, and interwoven family and the two great enterprises they wrangled. But it is also the story of a unique Texas city and the people it breeds. It’s a business story, a family story, and a story of a thriving, modern city; it is also our story.

John H. Kampmann, Master Builder
John H. Kampmann, Master Builder

Author: Maggie Valentine

Publisher: Beaufort Books

Published: 2014-02-07

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0825306639

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Although relatively unknown in modern day San Antonio, John H. Kampmann was an imposing force during his lifetime (1819-1885). Maggie Valentine explores the lasting legacy Kampmann had as a craftsman, builder, contractor, stonemason, construction supervisor, building designer, materials supplier, and business and civic leader for thirty-five years in San Antonio. He changed the face of the city from an adobe Spanish village to a city of stone and mortar. The book also looks at what it meant to be an architect, the business of building, and the role of immigrants. John and Caroline Bonnet Kampmann's descendants contributed much to the history of the city for generations. His client list reads like a Who's Who in 19th-century San Antonio. His work included the Menger Hotel, St. Joseph's Catholic Church, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and the German-English School, as well as the Steves, Eagar, Halff, Groos, and Oppenheimer Houses. In addition he ran businesses from a bank to a brewery, and served as city alderman and fire captain. This study brings to light an important chapter in the formation of the urban fabric of San Antonio and its evolution into a multi-cultural community. Valentine explores the built environment as it exemplified the social, political, and economic history.

The Material Culture of German Texans
The Material Culture of German Texans

Author: Kenneth Hafertepe

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2016-06-21

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 162349382X

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Winner, 2019 San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation Book Award, sponsored by the San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation German immigrants of the nineteenth century left a distinctive mark on the lifestyles and vernacular architecture of Texas. In this first comprehensive survey of the art and artifacts of German Texans, Kenneth Hafertepe explores how their material culture was influenced by their European roots, how it was adapted to everyday life in Texas, and how it changed over time—at different rates in different communities. The Material Culture of German Texans is about the struggle to become American while maintaining a distinctive cultural identity drawn from German heritage. Including materials from rural, small town, and urban settings, this masterful study covers pioneer generations in East Texas and the Hill Country, but also follows the story into the Victorian era and the early twentieth century. Houses and their furnishings, churches and cemeteries, breweries and businesses, and paintings and engravings fill the pages of this thorough, informative, and richly illustrated volume. Recent decades have seen a sharp increase of the study of vernacular architecture (which can range from traditional building to ethnic expressions to landscape ensembles) and an intensified study of American furniture and other decorative arts. Incorporating these vernacular and decorative arts methods and building on the works of cultural geographers, curators, and historians, The Material Culture of German Texans offers a definitive contribution that will inform visitors to the region as well as those who study its history and culture.

The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town
The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town

Author: Cyril E. Vetter

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 1999-03-01

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0807123714

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A. Hays Town changed the face of the Louisiana house. In a career that includes designing more than five hundred homes, he led architects, builders, and homeowners to embrace the finest elements of Louisiana's architectural past. Almost every home built in Louisiana during the last twenty years is in some way inspired by Town's work. The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town honors his legacy as Louisiana's premier residential architect. Color photographs of numerous homes -- including Town's own -- by Philip Gould combined with an illuminating text by Cyril E. Vetter produce a volume that captures the appeal and beauty of the state's finest architectural tradition. Born and raised in rural southwest Louisiana, Hays Town graduated from Tulane University with a degree in architecture in 1926 and worked for a firm in Jackson, Mississippi, for many years. He established his own successful commercial practice in Baton Rouge in 1939, but in the 1960s, Town turned to his abiding passion -- residential architecture. Throughout this chapter of his career, he perfected his inimitable style and emerged as one of the most prominent architects in the South. Town's residential designs are perceptibly influenced by the diverse culture of south Louisiana. His synthesis of the classic Acadian cottage, Spanish courtyards, and exterior French doors with Creole-influenced full-length shutters achieves an original confluence of seemingly disparate yet elegantly balanced themes and forms. Other Town trademarks include pigeonniers, tree alleys, thirteen-foot ceilings, heavy use of such woods as cypress and heart of pine, plantation-style separate structures, and brick floors with a special beeswax finish. The Louisiana Houses of A. Hays Town illuminates the momentous effect Town has had on the look of Louisiana. Crafted from the perspective of two people, Vetter and Gould, who are not architects but admirers of one man's exceptional talent, this delightful book demonstrates that each Town house is a work of art that fits both person and terrain. At the door of each home, proud owners hang a bronze plaque that says it all: A. Hays Town, Architect.

Architecture That Speaks
Architecture That Speaks

Author: Nancy T. McCoy

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1623495547

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When the A&M College of Texas opened its doors in 1876, its early buildings followed a Victorian architectural style. Classical architecture came to the campus with the Academic Building, after the 1912 fire that destroyed Old Main. Subsequent buildings generally followed this neoclassical path, but the growth of the campus in the Depression era saw the addition of an extraordinary group of buildings, sited in accordance with a master plan developed by college architect F. E. Giesecke and designed by S. C. P. Vosper, each of whom also held faculty positions in the first architecture program at a state college in Texas. The buildings designed by Vosper are arguably the finest buildings on the campus, uniquely expressive of the agricultural and mechanical origins of the university; they delight the senses with color, sculpture, and wit. Nancy T. McCoy and David G. Woodcock, distinguished preservation architects and scholars, review the history of Texas A&M campus architecture and provide in-depth coverage of Vosper and his legacy. Illustrated by the sumptuous photography of Carolyn Brown, Architecture That Speaks concludes with observations on recent approaches toward the reuse and rehabilitation of campus heritage architecture and a view to the future, as plans evolve for further development of the campus that maintains a respect for both strategic vision and historical heritage.

The Architecture and Cities of Northern Mexico from Independence to the Present
The Architecture and Cities of Northern Mexico from Independence to the Present

Author: Edward Burian

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2015-08-15

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0292771908

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The states of Northern Mexico—Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Baja California Norte and Sur—have architecture, urbanism, and landscape design that offer numerous lessons in how to build well, but this constructed environment is largely undervalued or unknown. To make this architecture better known to a wide professional, academic, and public audience, this book presents the first comprehensive overview in either English or Spanish of the architecture, urban landscapes, and cities of Northern Mexico from the country's emergence as a modern nation in 1821 to the present day. Profusely illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs, maps, and analytical drawings of urban cores of major cities, The Architecture and Cities of Northern Mexico systematically examines significant works of architecture in large cities and small towns in each state, from the earliest buildings in the urban core to the newest at the periphery. Edward R. Burian describes the most memorable works of architecture in each city in greater detail in terms of their spatial organization, materials, and sensory experience. He also includes a concise geographical and historical summary of the region that provides a useful background for the discussions of the works of architecture. Burian concludes the book with a brief commentary on lessons learned and possible futures for the architectural culture of the region, as well as the first comprehensive biographical listing of the architects practicing in Northern Mexico during the past two centuries.