South Alamo Street-South Mary's Street Historic District

South of San Antonio's commercial center, between South Alamo and South St. Mary's streets and the San Antonio River, lies a residential district of 474 structures on roughly 125 acres. Its shape was set by old irrigation ditches and the river. Developers including Ernst Wehrhahn, the partnership of Hardin B. Adams and E. D. L. Wickes, and the Meerscheidt family laid out lots, and some sold completed houses. Most buildings are vernacular frame dwellings with decorative details, but the district also holds brick ell-plan houses, homes with jigsawn trim and Palladian openings, neoclassical houses, and blocks of bungalows. Houses along Crofton Avenue and East Guenther Street are the largest and most elaborate. Little was built after 1930, so the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fabric remains largely intact. Of the 474 structures, 332 contribute to the district's character. Commercial buildings are mostly confined to South Alamo and South St. Mary's streets, and a neighborhood association and a local historic district have supported preservation.