HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded AgeProgressive & Modern Era

Wesley Peacock House

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Erected as a two-story home in 1890, this structure was the original building of Peacock School for boys, founded in 1894 by Wesley Peacock (1865-1941). Military training was initiated in 1900. Chartered in 1904, it became a distinguished school with High Academic standards. Peacock's two sons, Wesley, Jr., and Donald, took charge in 1926 of the Peacock Military Academy. A fire in 1931 on the second floor of the house prompted major remodeling. After educating 15,000 students, the 20-acre facility was deede in 1973 to the Salvation Army to be known as "Peacock Center."

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built as a two-story home in 1890, this structure became the first building of the Peacock School for boys, founded in 1894 by educator Wesley Peacock. Military training began in 1900, and the chartered school grew into the respected Peacock Military Academy, run by Peacock's sons after 1926. Having educated some 15,000 students, the campus was deeded to the Salvation Army in 1973.

Why it matters

The academy illustrates the private military-boarding-school tradition that shaped young men across the South in the early 20th century, and its reuse marks the passing of that era.

Plan your visit

Nearby

Make a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.

Museums & culture

Attractions

Food & drink

Places to stay

Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Wesley Peacock
  • · Wesley Peacock, Jr.
  • · Donald Peacock

Related events

  • · Founding of Peacock School (1894)

Themes & tags

EducationSchool

Nearby & related markers

Thomas Jefferson High School

San Antonio, TX

Built between 1930 and 1932 to relieve overcrowding in San Antonio's high schools, Thomas Jefferson High School rose despite public grumbling over its cost — and quickly justified the expense. Designed by the firm of Adams and Adams around twin patios and a landmark tower, its Spanish Baroque entry, red tile roof, and wrought-iron balconies made it one of the most celebrated school buildings in the country, later appearing in magazines and films. It opened to 1,400 students in February 1932.

Education

Protestant Home for Destitute Children

San Antonio, TX

Founded in 1886 as the San Antonio Home for Destitute Children, this Protestant orphanage moved into a purpose-built home on this site in December 1890 and cared for children here until 1926. Its distinctive building — an unusual blend of styles meant to fit its residential neighborhood — was the work of noted Texas architect James Riely Gordon. After the orphanage relocated, the structure served in turn as a Catholic mission and as apartments.

Education

Our Lady of the Lake University

San Antonio, TX

This San Antonio university traces its roots to French Catholic teaching sisters of the Congregation of Divine Providence, recruited to Texas in 1866 from a village in Lorraine to answer a call for frontier education. After years of work in Austin and Castroville, Mother Florence Walter moved the sisters to a lakeside site in 1895, opening a girls' academy the next year that grew from kindergarten through college. From those immigrant beginnings it matured into one of Texas's leading institutions of higher learning.

EducationWomen's History

Christ Episcopal Church

San Antonio, TX

Episcopalians first gathered in San Antonio's Laurel Heights neighborhood in 1907 as a mission of a downtown parish, organizing as Christ Episcopal Church a few years later. In 1913 they broke ground on a Gothic Revival sanctuary designed by the noted Texas architect Atlee B. Ayres in the spirit of an English parish church, adding a parish and educational building in 1929. The buildings trace the growth of a fashionable early-twentieth-century San Antonio suburb.

Education