A New Old House

A new old house has arrived in the neighborhood. The house located at 219 4th Street was moved to a lot on Nolan Street in Dignowity Hill. This project had been in the planning stages since last summer when our friend Ruby Casteel and her husband Bruce acquired the house from the First Baptist Church.

The house was originally built in 1885. The lot was sold to Olive Coulson in 1885 with a mechanics lien issued that same year. In 1892 the property was sold to Francis Smith.  It was then sold Mary A Rigsby in 1899 who lived in the house until 1915. Mary Rigsby was the mother of William C Rigsby and Nellie Rigsby (Mrs Ben Hammond). William Rigsby and Ben Hammond were major investors in the development of Highland Park. If you drive around the Highland Park area you will see the streets named after Rigsby and Hammond. The property was owned by the Rigsby family until 1944. Eventually the house was bought by the church. The house features great architectural details.  The original wood clad siding was covered in asbestos cladding.  The original wooden windows are intact along with the wooden screens. The house has high ceilings, transoms and wood floors.

The house before the move.

219 4th Street

Front Porch

Beautiful Window

Window Detail

It took the house moving crew several days to prep the house for the move. The house was lifted off its foundation and then fitted with heavy duty tires to move the structure down the road. In order to make the move through downtown and neighborhood streets the roof was taken off and the house was cut into two large sections.

Prepping for the move

On Wheels

Half a House

Roof Sliced off

Gable

The actual move was made in two trips as the two sections of the house were moved from its original site to its new home in Dignowity Hill. It was amazing seeing this 129 year old house hoisted on large steel mobile girders rolling through parts of the downtown area.

Getting Ready to Move

Pulling off the lot

Squeezing through Nolan Street

Making the turn onto its new site

Made it!

The second section of the house followed about an hour later. The two sections were eventually "married" to make the house whole again. Next steps will take care of getting the foundation in place and replacing the roof.  Eventually the entire house will be restored and rehabbed. At this point we are all happy the the project went off without a hitch, a testament to the expertise of Dodson House Moving crew.  It safe to say that Ruby and her husband Bruce have become instant celebrities in the neighborhood for saving such a grand old dame and bringing her to Dignowity Hill!

Second section of the house is joined to the first section

Working on the foundation

Ruby and Bruce with the Dodson's

Historic Home Owners Fair

What a day! Attended and participated in the Historic Homeowner's Fair at Jefferson High School. What a fun day! Lots of networking and sharing of ideas. Caught up with friends from other historic neighborhoods and made new ones! I'm always amazed how many folk know about Dignowity Hill! Met some potential new neighbors. Exciting, can't wait to see how they will do with the place they are buying!

It's Beyond Me

On the corner of Nolan and N Olive stands a beautiful old mansion. Built in 1895 and two stories tall, this grand old lady has seen better days. The current owner has allowed the structure to fall into a sad state of disrepair. Recently, shortly after a good rain, one of the second floor balconies partially collapsed, creating a dangerous structure situation. The city through it's Code Compliance officers and folks from the Historic Preservation Office have been pressuring the owner to repair the damage or possibly sell the house. The owner has been slow to respond and the house continues to deteriorate.

It's beyond me why anyone would allow such a grand old gem to literally fall apart. It's also beyond me why the owner will not sell the house to someone who will restore her. So to the owner of this wonderful old mansion, please consider selling it to someone who will save and restore this grand old lady to her former glory or fix her up yourself.

Eastside Virtual Tour

If you want take a virtual cultural and historic tour of the near Eastside then go to the following link: http://www.saculturaltours.com/

The city's Office of Cultural Affairs has put together an online neighborhood tour called Echoes of the Eastside. The tour has pictures and short blurbs about the people, landmarks and history of the Near Eastside area. You can take visit Dignowity Hill, St Paul Square, the cemetery district and read some colorful tidbits about the area. Check it out.

Graveyards and History

The other morning I went for a walk among the dead. Within walking distance from our house is a complex of cemeteries that date back to the 1850's. The cemetaries are on the National Register of Historic Places and cover over 100 acres on the city’s near Eastside. In the early 1850's San Antonio was running out of burial space and needed to find land to bury folks. In 1852 the city designated a plot of land known as Powder House Hill as a city cemetery. This land was a part of San Antonio’s original town tract granted to the municipality in the 18th century by the King of Spain and was named for the ruins of buildings apparently used as weapon and gunpowder storage by the Spanish. The land overlooks the city on some relatively high ground, which provides some great views of downtown San Antonio and I suppose makes one closer to the heavens if you're buried up here. Over time, plots of land were sold to families, fraternal groups, ethnic groups and religious organizations for burials.

Cemeteries fascinate me, not in a morbid way but because of the rich history that is in them. It's amazing what you can learn from these old graveyards. For instance, there is a National Cemetery for veterans of frontier campaigns, Indian war battles and WWI. It includes the remains of 300 Buffalo Soldiers. The Buffalo Soldiers were African-American soldiers that served during the Indian war campaigns of the 1870's and 1880's. There is a memorial dedicated to these soldiers else where in the cemetery complex.

There's even a Confederate soldiers cemetery, which I found a little ironic given that it's not far from the National Cemetery. What was even more surprising was the Confederate flag flying over the burial plots.

How about some Texas history. Clara Driscoll is buried here among the ancient oaks trees that dot the landscape. She's known as the Savior of the Alamo for putting up several thousand dollars of her own money to rescue the Alamo convent from being sold back in the early 1900's. She rests in a family mausoleum in the old San Antonio Masonic Cemetery.

I found Dignowity Cemetery. It took me a while but I was able to locate Dr. Michael Dignowity's final resting place. Actually, just about all his relatives are buried in this small cemetery, which isn't very far from the good doctor's old homestead on Dignowity Hill and it comes with wonderful views of downtown.

If you take the time to explore around the cemeteries you'll find some interesting grave markers. The one's I like are the markers telling us that the person buried was a member of the Woodsmen of America. They're the ones that look like tree stumps.....yes, tree stumps. Other markers are, well, just interesting.

It's nice being able to walk or bike from our house in Dignowity Hill to these historic burial grounds. What's really great is that they are very close to the eastern edge of downtown. From Sunset Station or the Vidorra you can walk or bike or take a short bus ride up Commerce Street to these old cemeteries and take a walk through history.