Lavaca, San Antonio

Description

The original formation of the Lavaca Historic District was approved by the City of San Antonio in 2001. Subsequent additions to the historic district were adopted in 2002 and 2004. The land that now encompasses much of the neighborhood was developed residentially in a piecemeal fashion starting in the mid-nineteenth century. Prior to that time it was part of the Labor de Afuera or farmlands of Mission San Antonio de Valero that later became the Alamo, and of the Elario Montoyo land grant dating from the Spanish Colonial period. The route of the Alamo Acequia, a Spanish irrigation ditch begun in about 1720, extends through the area. Lavaca's residential sector is one of the oldest in the San Antonio area that has survived into modern times, and many of the homes in this area are landmark structures of unique character. The district was initially partitioned into residential lots by the city in 1852 and by developers Samuel Maverick and Thomas Devine in 1854. However, no substantial development occurred there until after the beginning of a period of intense building in the King William District in the early 1870s.