San Antonio's Monte Vista: Architecture and Society in a Gilded Age

This lavishly-illustrated book is the definitive guide and reference work for the 100-block Monte Vista National Historic District, two miles north of downtown San Antonio. It includes 139 illustrations (some in color), maps, notes, bibliography and both a general index and an index of architects and their works.

Monte Vista survives nearly intact from the city's Gilded Age--1890 to 1930--when newly prosperous residents built the finest neighborhood of the era remaining in Texas. The district's vintage homes, both elaborate and modest, were designed by more than two dozen distinguished architects in an unusual variety of styles, from Queen Anne to Prairie to Tudor to Spanish Colonial Revival. In addition to describing the finest landmark homes, block by block, San Antonio's Monte Vista deals with the dynamics of developers and the lifestyles of original residents, and of their servants as well.