King Williams District, San Antonio

One of my favorite excursions in Texas was the King Williams Historical District in San Antonio.

This affluent area was home to the likes of cattle ranchers and investment bankers during the late half of the 19th century.  Due to a large flood in the 1920's and then the Great Depression in the 1930's, most of the neighborhood turned into a slum and a lot of the homes were divided into multi-family apartments.  Lucky for us, conservationists have gotten their hands on these grand estates and are returning them to their old glory.

That's me on the far right, in case you were wondering...

We were able to tour the interior of this Italianate Victorian whose last owner was a collector of... everything (dare I say he may have been a bit of a hoarder??).  Every surface was so piled with stuff it was tricky to navigate through the home without feeling like you were going to knock something over! But I guess we can forgive the man because there were some amazing pieces and he did live in a Victorian (most people who say they like Victorian style really mean traditional.  A pure Victorian aesthetic is eclectic, ornate, gaudy and well... cluttered.)

But look at those architectural details!!

Here's some Victorian Architecture vocab, in case you need a brush-up:

Let's take a look at some of my favorite homes from around the neighborhood, shall we?

My favorite aspect of these homes has to be the windows.  One of my pet peeves is too small of windows.  These windows are skinny and long- most go almost down to the floor boards. Their shutters actually work AND are large enough to cover the glass (SO much more chic than the faux-shutters everyone has these days).  It may sound weird, but Texans know how to do windows right!

The above home was my absolute favorite.  I'm kicking myself for not taking more photos.

This home had a maid. A real black-and-white-dress-with-pinafore type maid.  I spotted her as she was taking out the trash and I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't imagining her.

Doesn't this just make you want to wear a hoop skirt and drink ice tea on the balcony? 

Sigh... so pretty.

{all images taken by Brooke Jones}