By: Architectural Historian Shelley Roff, Ph.D. 610 Shadwell Drive, a charming cottage ornamented with green shutters and flower boxes on each window, was built in Jefferson Terrace in 1941. In this Great Depression era, the majority of homes were designed with singular economy in mind, but never without a little added style - a style we call today, Minimal Traditional. These houses typically are one-story with low-pitched roofs and close-set eaves, and a minimum of wood trim and molding on the exterior and interior of the house. The body of the house was probably originally covered in the traditional fiber-cement shingles with wavy edges. The original exterior screens set within the windows are a design that I have seen on houses in San Antonio as early as 1905. The house appears to have been renovated with an envelope of vinyl siding, the green shutters, and the iron-structure car portico with floral details that date it to the 1960s. Built in the early 40s, this house was designed just after the Ranch style became popular in California, and it exhibits a few influences in its design. The long body of the house lies perpendicular to the street; however, the interior spaces of the house are laid out asymmetrically. A long living room occupies the center, whose back wall divides the living area from the kitchen and a dining area (which originally was a covered exterior porch). Typically a ranch-style home had an axial view (a line of sight) from a front living room window back directly through that space to the back yard. The gabled wing on the right side of the house merely amplifies the space of the living room. The house appears to step down in terraces from the living room, to the dining area, to the present exterior back porch, to the yard. Cottage-craft woodwork popular from the 1920s to the 40s - a holdover from the Victorian era - can be seen in the kitchen cabinetry, especially in the doily detail framing the window over the sink and the curved-edge shelves that ornament an extended wing of the kitchen counter. This bright, sunny kitchen probably had a beadboard wainscot covering the walls, which has since been removed. The 1940s woodwork can also be seen in the panel doors - especially note the kitchen door that swings shut to keep heat and odors inside, and yet allow a hostess to easily navigate her way out with a party platter. The previous owners of this house have carefully maintained most of its original details, such as the quaint carved wood telephone niche in the hallway, and numerous forms of brass and glass door knobs. The pink and wine bathroom tile may be original. The built-in book shelves are harder to date; they could be original to the house or part of a renovation done in the 1960s. | 
Historically and Architecturally Significant San Antonio Vintage Homes 
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