Lavaca Historic District

Lavaca Historic District is a roughly 39.5-acre neighborhood about three-quarters of a mile south of downtown San Antonio. It is mostly residential, with a small group of commercial buildings along South Alamo Street and a school complex on Lavaca Street. The oldest buildings are caliche-block houses from the 1870s and early 1880s, followed by wood-frame houses in two-room, L-plan, modified L-plan and hipped-roof forms, and later Craftsman-influenced bungalows. The commercial buildings, mostly from the 1890s and 1900s, are plain One- and Two-Part Commercial Blocks. Street patterns follow older Spanish Colonial acequias and land tracts called suertes. The district's period of significance runs from 1870 to 1949. Of 138 resources, 88 contribute to its character, including the Fourth Ward School, which is individually listed. Unlike the nearby King William district, Lavaca was never home to the city's elite, and its modest houses and social fabric define its historic importance.