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KING WILLIAM AREA
Walking Tour History and
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The King William District occupies land that was once
irrigated farm land belonging to the Mission San Antonio de Valero, the
Alamo. When the mission was secularized in 1793, the lands were divided
among the resident Indian families from the mission or sold at public
auction.
The area call the King William Neighborhood of today was
subdivided into lots in the 1860s and laid out with the present streets.
It was about this time that a great many Germans who had immigrated to
Texas in the 1840s began to settle in this area and it became known as
"Sauerkraut Bend" to the rest of San Antonio.
It developed into an idyllic neighborhood of large,
impressive houses shaded by enormous pecan and cypress trees. The main
entry street into the area was given the name King Wilhelm in honor of
King Wilhelm I, King of Prussia in the 1870s. During World War I, when
America was at war with Germany, the name was changed to Pershing
Avenue. A few years after the war was over the original name was
restored, but this time it was given the English version of the name,
King William, and it has remained so since.
In the early 1900s the King William District began to
wane as a fashionable neighborhood and by 1920 many of the original home
builders died and their children moved to other parts of San Antonio.
During the 1930s and 1940s the neighborhood declined and many of the
fine old homes were converted into apartments and general deterioration
set in throughout the area. Only a few of the earlier settlers remained
and maintained earlier standards.
Around 1950, however, the area began to attract a group
of people who found its proximity to the business district attractive
and who, moreover, recognized the potential of restoration of the fine
old houses and the smaller cottages here and there. The interest in
preservation of the area began to be aroused and once again it became a
"fashionable" and desirable place to live.
In 1967 the King William District was designated the
first Historic Neighborhood District in Texas. It is protected under a
zoning ordinance designed to "protect it for the benefit and enjoyment
of the public."
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