Southwest School of Art & Craft, with roots dating to 1848, when the Catholic community started building the Ursuline Academy, an elite, private girl’s school, it is one of the oldest education sites in San Antonio, Texas. It was recently declared the largest and most significant example of French-influenced architecture in the state by the French Heritage Society. Early buildings on the campus were designed by famed architect Francois Giraud, the city’s first surveyor who is responsible for many of the city’s distinct buildings, including the French Gothic style addition of San Fernando Cathedral. Giraud, who was born in South Carolina to French immigrant parents, chose a construction method called pise de terre, or rammed earth, for the buildings. Skilled pise worker Jules Poinsard worked as a subcontractor on the project.
The Adobe Alliance
The Adobe Alliance, led by Simone Swan, is an organization whose goals are to to build low-cost energy efficient housing that is climatically and environmentally compatible and to fill widespread needs for sustainable, salubrious housing while enhancing the unique landscape of the Big Bend region of West Texas and other desert environments.
Adobe Architecture
The North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts offers a concise history and explaination of adobe architecture.
Adobe Workshop
The Adobe Alliance is holding the 5th annual Adobe Plaster Workshop in Presidio, Texas March 21 – 23. For more information visit the workshop web site, or click here to download the workshop poster.
El Paso
Caption on the front of this postcard reads, “Old Mission Style of Adobe House, A Mexican Residence, W.H. Horne Co., El Paso, Tex.” and is postmarked from El Paso, Oct 20, 1919. Message on the back is “How would you like to live in a mud house like this?”
San Antonito
1914 San Antonio, Texas adobe house.