1 127 West Craig Place, built on the edge of the Beacon Hill neighborhood near downtown, is a Texas variant of the Folk Victorian. This style is defined by Victorian detailing added to simple folk house forms, usually in a much more modest manner than the actual Victorians they were attempting to mimic.
The front of the house projects forward with a deep two-tier veranda, perfect for porch swing, sipping lemonade and watching the neighbors stroll by. The porch ceilings were likely to have been painted sky blue originally, a traditional color that was used to prevent wasps from building nests.
The wood clapboard house is constructed on an elevated foundation and is sheltered by the deeply extended eaves of a gabled roof. This deep eave detail is repeated over the pediment in both the front and back of the house and highlighted with the addition of vergeboards, which the owner has painted in a contrasting color.
The rectangular form of the house is enhanced by several window boxes that pop out from its sides, such as that for the staircase on the west and the dining room alcove to the east. The brick chimney on the east side of the house appears to be rebuilt in more recent times.
This house has been remodeled several times in its history, so those interested in historic preservation will want to know what is original. The date of construction of this house is within the second decade of the 20th century; its plan appears on a San Antonio Sanborn map dated August 1922.
The map illustrates what we see today, a two-story house with a contiguous two-story porch and a detached garage in the rear. Since there were no houses constructed on this block in a 1911 map, we can surmise that the house originated sometime between these dates.
The present owner has renovated the house to make it comfortable for a contemporary lifestyle, yet has preserved many of its historical details, such as the multi-panel wood doors with their metal and glass knobs and elegant, classical molded frames. A local, early 20th-century manufacturer in San Antonio must have provided the diamond and box patterned divided light windows which can be found in many of the historical neighborhoods in San Antonio. The designer of this house arranged them as small double-hung panes and in casements of three.
The original builder of the house went to some expense to ornament the public areas of the interior: the vestibule and staircase. A modest form of boiserie, a type of carved wood paneling with raised moldings, decorates the piers and walls. In the living room, a pair of bookshelves flank each side of the fireplace with a symmetrical single-pane window above. This arrangement of forms can be seen in many historical houses in this neighborhood and it is likely that the windows originally were intended to slide upwards into the wall, operated with the aide of a weight and pulley system. The dining room is linked directly to the living room through a new French door, probably originally separated with a pocket door. The focus of the dining area is a broad window seat alcove, a design feature that can also be seen on the bungalow next door constructed in 1920. On the second floor, French doors provide easy access to the porch.
Posts
