Laguna Gloria
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This Mediterranean style villa was built in 1916 for Henry H. and Clara Driscoll Sevier. Named Laguna Gloria for a nearby lagoon off the Colorado River, the stuccoed home features a decorative window at San Jose Mission in San Antonio. In 1943 the site was conveyed to the Texas Fine Arts Assoc. by Clara Driscoll, best known for her efforts to pereserve the Alamo. Her homesite is now owned by Laguna Gloria Art Museum. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Laguna Gloria is a Mediterranean-style villa built in 1916 for Henry and Clara Driscoll Sevier on a lagoon off the Colorado River, complete with a decorative window modeled on San Antonio's San José Mission. Its greater fame flows from Clara Driscoll, the philanthropist celebrated as the "Savior of the Alamo" for her efforts to preserve that shrine, who in 1943 gave the property to the Texas Fine Arts Association. Her lakeside home became an art museum, extending her legacy of cultural stewardship.
Why it matters
The villa memorializes Clara Driscoll, whose preservation of the Alamo and gift of this estate mark the outsized role of women in shaping Texas's historical memory and cultural institutions.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Laguna Gloria was built in 1916, in the middle of the Progressive Era, when Americans were reforming government, founding civic and cultural institutions and, increasingly, looking to preserve the past. Women were at the center of much of that work, through clubs and patriotic societies, even before they won the national right to vote in 1920.
In Texas, historical memory had become a cause of its own. Places connected to the Texas Revolution, above all the Alamo in San Antonio, were becoming shrines, and battles over how to save and present them could be fierce.
Austin, meanwhile, was a growing capital city on the Colorado River. The river's hilly western banks attracted people looking for scenic retreats, and wealthy Texans built homes there that reflected the popular revival styles of the time, including the Mediterranean look that suited the Texas sun.
People & events
The villa was built for Henry H. Sevier and his wife, Clara Driscoll Sevier. Clara Driscoll was already famous by then. In the early 1900s she had put her own fortune toward saving part of the Alamo complex from commercial development, and Texans have long honored her as the "Savior of the Alamo" for it.
The couple named their home Laguna Gloria after a lagoon off the Colorado River nearby. The stuccoed Mediterranean-style house includes a decorative window that echoes the famous ornamented window at Mission San José in San Antonio. It was a fitting choice for a woman so devoted to preserving the Spanish colonial and revolutionary heritage of Texas.
In 1943 Clara Driscoll gave the property to the Texas Fine Arts Association. With that gift, her private lakeside home became a public cultural space. Today the site is owned by the art museum that grew from that donation, so her home continues to serve the public.
Its place in the American story
Clara Driscoll's life is a clear example of how much American women shaped the nation's historical memory. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women's organizations led the way in saving historic places across the country, from Mount Vernon to the Alamo, often long before government stepped in.
Her gift of Laguna Gloria also fits a broader American tradition in which private homes of wealthy patrons become public museums. Many of the country's cultural institutions began this way, with one person's generosity turning a private estate into a public space.
The villa itself reflects a period when Americans in the Southwest looked to Spanish and Mediterranean architecture to express regional identity. The borrowed mission window links this Austin home to the colonial missions that are among the oldest European-built structures in Texas.
If you visit
Laguna Gloria sits on the western edge of Austin along the Colorado River, where the river is now dammed into the stretch known as Lake Austin. The setting is a big part of its appeal: water, trees and a stuccoed villa that feels a world away from the busy city.
When you visit, look for the decorative window inspired by Mission San José. Then think about the path from here to San Antonio. The woman who lived here helped save the Alamo, and a piece of the missions' design came home with her.
Laguna Gloria pairs naturally with a Texas history road trip between Austin and San Antonio, where you can see the Alamo and Mission San José in person. Check the site's current arrangements for visiting the grounds before you go.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Clara Driscoll
- · Henry H. Sevier
Themes & tags
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