Monte Vista Residential Historic District - San Antonio, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 29° 27.016 W 098° 29.914
14R E 548626 N 3257977
Roughly bounded by Hildebrand, Stadium, N. St. Mary's, Asby, and San Pedro Sts. 1,704 Contributing Buildings. 5 Contributing structures. 9 Contributing objects. Coordinates are for a home in the Southwest corner of the district.
Waymark Code: WMZP7V
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/13/2018
Views: 2
NRHP Nomination Form
"The Monte Vista Residential Historic District encompasses nearly 100 blocks of residential development spread across a rocky hill north of San Antonio's central business district. The neighborhood developed slowly between 1882 and the turn of the century before booming in the 1920s and 1930s. As a result, architect designed period revival residences coexist with more modest vernacular dwellings, bungalows and apartment houses lining the neighborhood's streets. Enlivening the basic rectilinear grid, its boulevards and parkways feature distinctive landscaping elements such as entry gates and rows of street trees. The resultant collection of late 19th and early 20th century resources includes 1723 residences, garages and other properties that retain sufficient integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association to remain recognizable to the district's period of significance.
The Monte Vista neighborhood occupies a rocky hill elevated approximately 100 feet above downtown. Named for the largest of its platted subdivisions, Monte Vista (1920), the district also encompasses Laurel Heights [developed in phases as Adam's Laurel Heights (1890), Craig's Laurel Heights (1888), Stribling's Laurel Heights (1905), Laurel Heights Terrace (1907) and Laurel Heights Place (1923)], Summit Place and Summit Terrace (1908-11), Oakmont (1923-27), Northcrest (1925), Greenwood Village (1926), Gramercy Place (c.l926) and Gray Gables (1928).
Locally quarried limestone provided much of the building material for houses in the early development of the neighborhood. After 1900, however, brick and frame constructions appeared more frequently. Stucco over clay tile became a prominent building system in the 1920s as a natural response to the romantic architectural styles of Spanish Colonial Revival, Italian Renaissance and Tudor Revival imagery adopted by local builders. Lack of fire protection was a concern among many residents that influenced selection of such construction materials. While land had been donated for a fire station in 1902 and plans were drawn by Atlee B. Ay res in 1905, local protection did not arrive until construction of the present stafion on West Russell Place in 1929."