Ernst Homestead

San Antonio, TX

The King William neighborhood grew on farmlands once tilled by Mission San Antonio de Valero — the Alamo — that were distributed to residents after the Spanish government secularized the mission in 1793. Subdivided in the mid-1800s, the area drew many German immigrants fleeing political and economic turmoil, and it took its name around 1866 when Ernst and Emma Altgelt honored Wilhelm I of Prussia. Later arrivals, including Mexican families displaced by the 1910 Revolution, added to a neighborhood now prized for the richest, most intact collection of historic architecture in San Antonio.

San Antonio, TX

English immigrant Robert Caile built this caliche-block house soon after buying the property in 1857, on land that had been part of an 1812 Spanish grant to Delores Alderete. He enlarged it after the Civil War, and the home stayed in his family until 1894 before passing to a farmer who rented it out. It stands as a tangible link across San Antonio's Spanish-colonial and American frontier eras.

San Antonio, TX

German immigrant and importer Gustav Blersch built this two-story limestone home in 1860, making it one of only a handful of surviving antebellum structures in San Antonio's King William Historic District. Working with a German designer and a noted local contractor, he created a house that a series of later owners — bankers, families, and finally the Watson cousins — enlarged and carefully preserved. Additions over the years, including a bay window and enclosed porches, layered a century of domestic life onto the original.

San Antonio, TX

This peninsula in the San Antonio River, once bounded by water on three sides and the Concepcion Acequia on the fourth, was bought in 1845 by Philadelphia native John Bowen. He and his family built a seven-room home, planted orchards and vineyards, and ran a waterwheel-irrigated truck farm; Bowen served as city postmaster and treasurer and, a staunch Unionist, reportedly sheltered fugitive slaves. The island became a beloved gathering spot, hosting the first Volksfest and the German Turnverein before the river was diverted in the 1920s and joined it to the mainland.