White, R.L., Ranch

Located north of Helotes in the Texas Hill Country, this ranch district preserves about 3,500 acres of a once 10,000-acre property that Ryall Luther White began assembling around 1926. White made his fortune in rock asphalt mining and road paving, and he used the ranch to host highway contractors on deer and turkey hunts. The centerpiece is the Lake Pavilion, built in 1938-1940 as a limestone-faced lodge with guest quarters, ten fireplaces and a log-trussed main room patterned after Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim. Other resources include the stone main house from about 1926, a guest cottage, the Red Cottage, barns, sheds, windmills, wells, stone cisterns and man-made dams that hold lakes. The water-control works reflect White's interest in conserving scarce water. Of the thirty historic buildings, structures and sites, twenty-five contribute to the district, which is recognized for its Rustic design and its link to White's business career.