HemisFair ’68 and The Homes on Goliad Street
About this five-part series: During the early 1960’s, San Antonio was poised for urban renewal, which eventually brought a world’s fair and new municipal buildings to this economically-stalled South Texas city. When construction began for HemisFair ’68, only 22 of 300 historic homes were saved from the neighborhood once called Germantown. This series strives to help restore the sense of community enjoyed by the diverse residents who made their homes a short walk from the Alamo.
Mayer Halff’s journey to Goliad Street is a lesson in perseverance and hard work. His story began in Lauterbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, France, where he was born in 1836. Escaping rural poverty before the Franco-Prussian War, his oldest brother, Adolphe, sailed to America and began selling merchandise from both ox wagon and horseback. Mayer arrived in Galveston a few years later, when he was just 14-years-old. Soon, these itinerant peddlers opened a mercantile store in the town of Liberty, forty miles northeast of Houston. That same year, Adolphe drowned tragically when his ship sank in the Gulf of Mexico during a hurricane. By 1857, their youngest brother, 21-year-old Solomon, joined Mayer in this new frontier. Renouncing his French citizenship and becoming a United States citizen in 1860, Mayer spent part of the Civil War trading goods and cattle in southern Texas and Matamoros, Mexico.
Mayer and his younger brother Solomon took advantage of this growing 28th state called Texas by selling goods to ranchers, prospectors, farmers, and city dwellers in Liberty. They traded cattle for many of the goods sold — in Texas, cattle was considered currency in the lean years following the Civil War — and they recorded cattle brands and dollar amounts in the store’s record books. Later, Mayer would leave the mercantile business to his brother to manage their burgeoning cattle business. At one point, the brothers owned nearly six million acres of west and north Texas range.
By 1864, the brothers moved to San Antonio (then the largest city in Texas), opening a store named “M. Halff and Brother” on Commerce street, just a stone’s throw from the Alamo. Their business thrived and became one of the largest mercantiles in the southwest. By 1870, the brothers acquired the 50,000 acre Circle Dot ranch in Brewster County, Texas, near Big Bend. Raising and selling cattle in Texas was one business strategy, but shipping Longhorns and Herefords up north where they might fetch up to ten times the price, was a challenge that Mayer accepted and managed successfully, becoming one of the large cattle operations in the state. It wasn’t long before their ranches spanned from the Rio Grande to Montana. The brothers also have the distinction of importing the first Hereford breed to the United States, raising them on their Quien Sabe Ranch near Midland.
Retail and ranching weren’t the Halff brother’s only businesses. A natural offshoot of their mercantile company was banking. Mayer began City National Bank in San Antonio, and joined Solomon in founding Alamo National Bank. The brothers were also founding members of Temple Beth-El, the oldest synagogue in South Texas.
After a long and successful business partnership, it’s poignant to note that both brothers died in 1905 — Solomon passing away in May, and Mayer that December.
Germantown in San Antonio
The German community flourished in San Antonio, and by 1870, theirs was the largest nationality, overtaking the Irish, English, and Mexican population. German impact on the city was palpable; opening the Menger Hotel in Alamo plaza, as well as an athletic club which lent respectability to the Alamo ruins, as well as organizing the first volunteer firefighters. West Commerce Street, where M. Halff and Brother’s was located, became the center of the German colony in the city. Beethoven Hall was built in this area in 1895, and was said to be the finest concert hall in South Texas, offering operas and symphony orchestra performances to enhance the city’s cultural landscape.
Directly across from the Alamo was an academically-rigorous German-English school for boys. Girls were sent to finishing schools, and boys often went to Germany for more training after graduating in San Antonio. Prosperous families began building fine homes along King William, Washington, and Goliad streets. By the 1890’s, the city had tripled in size in twenty years to nearly 40,000 residents.
Building the Mayer Halff Mansion
It’s in this era that Mayer Halff purchased land on Goliad Street, near the Acequia Madre de Valero, the same irrigation system that fed the Alamo and surrounding farmlands. Noted English architect Alfred Giles and builder John Kampmann combined forces to create the largest home remaining in HemisFair Park at nearly 5,000 square feet. By 1886, this three-story, 16-room limestone mansion was completed using Gothic Revival and Victorian details, including massive rough-cut masonry-style construction. The home boasts two wood porches on the east and north elevations.
About 1893, Halff hired architect James Riely Gordon to modify the front facade, giving us today’s viewpoint, complete with the decorative “MH” plaque to the left of the arched entrance. The home was an obvious symbol of the Halff family’s success in business and must have been a comfortable dwelling for the Halff children and their small staff of servants.
Early land records show this property was given to Baron de Bastrop by the Spanish government in 1815. Interestingly, the Baron pretended to be Dutch royalty, but was in actuality a former tax collector who fled Dutch Guiana after he was accused of embezzlement. However, Bastrop was key in establishing an early colony in Texas, negotiating with the Mexican government on behalf of Steven F. Austin. By the time Halff purchased the land in the 1870’s, records show it was owned by builder John Kampmann.
Life in the Halff Household
Mayer married Rachel Hart from Detroit in 1867; they had four surviving children, after losing two children as infants. It’s possible that Mayer knew Rachel’s family through working with her father in New Orleans since she and her twin brother, Morris, were born in that city.
The Halff family enjoyed what we consider luxuries today — Mose Perry was a houseman and probably butler (he later worked at M. Halff and Brother), while Lizzie Collins served as cook and housekeeper, along with housekeeper Lizzie Hlugosh. The household also included Lizzie’s daughter, Fredrica Collins, listed as age 12 in the 1900 census. In a nearly 5,000 square foot home, with four young children (Henry Mayer age 12, Alexander Hart age 11, Henrietta “Hennie” age 10, and 2-year old Lillie Elizabeth) this was surely a busy home.
Rachel lived 14 years longer than her husband, passing away in 1919 in New York City at the age of 73. After Rachel’s death, the home on Goliad Street probably went to the children, or was sold. She left $600,000 to be divided equally between the children.
Getting Ready for the World’s Fair
During HemisFair ’68, this home was one of 22 saved for use as a variety of buildings. Unfortunately, the home was in serious disrepair by this time and was quickly renovated in 1967 in preparation for the fair. Restoration costs (plus furnishings) were estimated at $250,000 (note the home was built for around $3,400 in 1886). Restoration efforts for the nearly 80-year-old home included structural reinforcements, porch repairs, replacing rotted wood trim, balustrades, broken leaded-glass windows, and adding central heating and air conditioning. This was no small feat of restoration.
During the fair, the Mayer and Solomon Halff homes formed a food court of sorts, with the Mayer Halff home used as both the House of Sir John Falstaff German Restaurant downstairs, and the fair’s Press Club (complete with 188-year-old bar with leaded glass, plush red carpets, Gay ‘90’s posters, and table tops featuring newspaper ads from the 1890’s) on the second floor. Decor recalled the Old West, with a frontier-style gun collection and antiques. Patios on the north and west sides of the home depicted a German Biergarten. An Oompah band furnished music to fairgoers.
As HemisFair planners prepared to host an ambitious world’s fair, they described these formerly fine and enviable residences as “decrepit,” and they were honest in this description. Time had not been kind to the Halff home; vandalism had severely damaged the formerly grand mansion. Planners were tasked with restoring the home, while the lessee (in this case, the Falstaff Brewing Company) was in charge of interior finish out. Restoration work began in March of 1967, giving the workers a slim window to have the Halff home ready to serve beer and host the press by April, 1968.
Restoring a Texas Landmark
The Mayer Halff home was judged a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) in 1966, meaning the home is historically and architecturally significant to the Texas Historical Commission, affording the home protections against “unsympathetic changes” and declaring it worthy of preservation. It is the highest honor bestowed on a historic structure by the state of Texas.
In 2015, the home’s exterior was carefully restored to its current state, however the interior remains to be brought back to its former glory, when the Halff family enjoyed the bustle of this thriving and diverse community.
Conclusion
This series about the homes along Goliad Street grew out of my need to complete an applied project for a masters degree in Liberal Studies, and my passion for family history. My paternal grandparents immigrated from Yugoslavia through Ellis Island in 1902, and I’m heartbroken that I didn’t engage them in conversation about their life’s journey of immigration to the United States, or the successful lives they built here. I can only imagine that I was too young to take note, and when I did gather information about our family, it was from my aunt, the last surviving member of her large family of Serbian-speaking, Orthodox-worshiping immigrants from the old country.
Learning about the historic homes remaining in Hemisfair park has brought me closer to my adopted community of San Antonio, and for this I am forever grateful. I’m also thankful to be asked to serve on Hemisfair Conservancy’s Development Board. We are tasked with raising awareness about our “new” city park, and the beauty it brings to downtown San Antonio, for tourists and locals alike. Please join me in supporting Hemisfair Conservancy’s work to preserve these historic homes by donating to the Conservancy through this website: https://hemisfair.org/donate/
Twenty-nine percent of donations are used for historic preservation.
Copyright Notice: The unauthorized use of images from Hemisfair Conservancy, San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation, University of Texas at San Antonio, or the author is prohibited without prior consent from these entities.
