NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National RegisterSBR of Historic Places Registration Draft Form
1. Name of Property
Historic Name: Aurora Apartment Hotel Other name/site number: Aurora Apartments Name of related multiple property listing: NA
2. Location
Street & number: 509 Howard Street City or town: San Antonio State: Texas County: Bexar Not for publication: Vicinity:
3. State/Federal Agency Certification
As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this nomination request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property ( meets does not meet) the National Register criteria.
I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following levels of significance: national statewide local
Applicable National Register Criteria: A B C D
State Historic Preservation Officer ______Signature of certifying official / Title Date
Texas Historical Commission State or Federal agency / bureau or Tribal Government
In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria.
______Signature of commenting or other official Date
______State or Federal agency / bureau or Tribal Government
4. National Park Service Certification
I hereby certify that the property is:
___ entered in the National Register ___ determined eligible for the National Register ___ determined not eligible for the National Register. ___ removed from the National Register ___ other, explain: ______
Signature of the Keeper Date of Action United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Aurora Apartment Hotel,SBR San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Draft
5. Classification
Ownership of Property: Private
Category of Property: Building
Number of Resources within Property
Contributing Noncontributing 2 0 buildings 0 0 sites 0 0 structures 0 0 objects 2 0 total
Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register: 0
6. Function or Use
Historic Functions: DOMESTIC: Multiple Dwelling, Hotel
Current Functions: DOMESTIC: Multiple Dwelling
7. Description
Architectural Classification: LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY REVIVALS: Late Gothic Revival, Beaux Arts, Spanish Colonial Revival; MODERN MOVEMENT: Art Deco
Principal Exterior Materials: BRICK, STONE, CONCRETE, GLASS
Narrative Description (see continuation sheets xx)
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places REGISTRATION FORM NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Aurora Apartment Hotel,SBR San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Draft
8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria: C
Criteria Considerations: NA
Areas of Significance: Architecture (local)
Period of Significance: 1930
Significant Dates: 1930
Significant Person (only if criterion b is marked): NA
Cultural Affiliation (only if criterion d is marked): NA
Architect/Builder: Vander Straten, Richard (architect), Herff & Jones (associate architects), Oeffinger, Edward W. (general contractor)
Narrative Statement of Significance (see continuation sheets xx)
9. Major Bibliographic References
Bibliography (see continuation sheets xx)
Previous documentation on file (NPS): _ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested. _ previously listed in the National Register _ previously determined eligible by the National Register _ designated a National Historic Landmark _ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # recorded by Historic American Engineering Record #
Primary location of additional data: x State historic preservation office (Texas Historical Commission, Austin) _ Other state agency _ Federal agency _ Local government _ University _ Other -- Specify Repository:
Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): NA
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Aurora Apartment Hotel,SBR San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Draft
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of Property: 1.41 acres
Coordinates
Latitude/Longitude Coordinates
Datum if other than WGS84: N/A
1. Latitude: 29.441624°N Longitude: -98.496405°W 2. Latitude: 29.441634°N Longitude: -98.495562°W 3. Latitude: 29.440993°N Longitude: -98.495539°W 4. Latitude: 29.440990°N Longitude: -98.495973°W 5. Latitude: 29.440712°N Longitude: -98.495982°W 6. Latitude: 29.440719°N Longitude: -98.496141°W 7. Latitude: 29.441185°N Longitude: -98.496131°W 8. Latitude: 29.441186°N Longitude: -98.496386°W
Verbal Boundary Description: NCB 373 BLK 15 LOT 7 & N 235.4 FT & W 50 FT OF S 99.85 FT OF A1, (Property ID 103525) San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas (Map 4).
Boundary Justification: The boundary includes all the property historically associated with the nominated resources and follows the current legal parcel as recorded by the Bexar County Appraisal District (Map 5).
11. Form Prepared By
Name/title: Adam Rajper, Associate Organization: MacRostie Historic Advisors, LLC Address: 20 N. Sampson Street, Suite 102 City or Town: Houston State: Texas Zip Code: 77003 Email: [email protected] Telephone: (310) 817-3942 Date: July 2020
Additional Documentation
Maps (see continuation sheet xx)
Additional items (see continuation sheets xx)
Photographs (see continuation sheet xx)
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Photograph Log
Aurora Apartment Hotel San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Photographed by Adam Rajper, May 2020
Photo 1 Photo 14 Primary (east) façade with Crockett Park in foreground, Detail of fountain in sunroom, view north view west Photo 15 Photo 2 Ground floor corridor, view north Detail of main entrance on primary (east) façade, view southwest Photo 16 Coffee shop, view south Photo 3 Detail of foundation stone on primary (east) façade Photo 17 Typical residential corridor Photo 4 Primary (east) and north (side) façades, view southwest Photo 18 Typical apartment entrance vestibule, view east Photo 5 Primary (east) and south (side) façades, view northwest Photo 19 Typical apartment interior, view northeast Photo 6 Rear (west) and façade, view east Photo 20 Typical apartment interior, view northwest Photo 7 Rear (west) and south (side) façades, view northeast Photo 21 Typical apartment bathroom Photo 8 Rear (west) and north (side) façades, southeast Photo 22 Commercial building, primary (north) façade, view Photo 9 south Roof and penthouse, view northwest Photo 23 Photo 10 Commercial building, primary (north) and east (side) Roof and penthouse, view southwest façades, view southwest
Photo 11 Photo 24 Elevator lobby, view southwest Commercial building, primary (north) and west (side) façades, view southeast Photo 12 Lounge, view west Photo 25 Commercial building, rear (south) façade, view north Photo 13 Reception room, view southwest Photo 26 Commercial building, rear (south) and west (side) façades, view northeast
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Aurora Apartment Hotel,SBR San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Draft
Photo 27 Commercial building, rear (south) and east (side) façades, view northwest
Photo 28 Commercial building, typical tenant space interior, view west
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 100 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1849 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC
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Aurora Apartment Hotel,SBR San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas Draft
Narrative Description
The Aurora Apartment Hotel, located at 509 Howard Street, in the Northside neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas is a ten-story with basement residential high-rise building with a three-story rooftop penthouse. Constructed as a premier South Texas apartment hotel between 1928 and 1930, the rectangular plan building is oriented towards and set back from Howard Street and overlooks Crockett Park to the east. The Aurora Apartment Hotel is a reinforced concrete with tan colored raked face brick building with Eclectic cast stone ornamentation and takes the form of a three-part vertical block with a clearly defined base, middle section, and parapet. The Eclectic cast stone ornament features a blend of Spanish Colonial Revival, Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and Gothic Revival influences. An associated one-story with basement contributing commercial building constructed in 1930 sits at the northwest corner of the parcel, fronting West Laurel Street. The commercial building is also reinforced concrete with a tan colored raked face brick exterior. At the rear of the parcel is an asphalt surface parking lot in place of a 1930 parking garage built for the Aurora’s guests that was demolished around 1970. The Aurora Apartment Hotel, commercial building, and garage were designed by architect Richard Vander Straten in association with architectural firm Herff and Jones. The exterior of the Aurora is remarkably intact and it retains the massing, size, scale, and design of an early twentieth century luxury residential high-rise. A few of the ground floor public spaces were reconfigured in 1962 and 1982 and the original suites were remodeled in the preceding years, but despite these changes the interior is largely intact. The commercial building is also largely intact, although the storefronts and interiors were altered at an unknown date. Apart from a few purposeful modifications over the years, the property retains a high level of historic integrity.
Site and Setting (Maps 1-5)
Located in San Antonio’s Northside, at the southwest corner of West Laurel and Howard Streets, the Aurora Apartment Hotel serves as a backdrop for Crockett Park which occupies two blocks flanking Main Avenue. The area surrounding the building is a suburban neighborhood with a mix of single- and multi-family residential and commercial buildings. Seven blocks to the north is the Monte Vista Historic District (National Register of Historic Places, 1998), a one-hundred block development consisting of late nineteenth and early twentieth century residential architecture reflecting San Antonio’s streetcar- and automobile-related suburbanization. There are also several locally designated resources in the surrounding area: San Pedro Springs Park (City of San Antonio Landmark) to the northwest, the Tobin Hill Landmark District (City of San Antonio Landmark District) to the east, and Brackenridge Park further to the east (City of San Antonio Landmark; National Register of Historic Places, 2011). Adjacent to the Aurora are two large single-family residences constructed in the early twentieth century. The first is the Queen Anne style A.H. Halff House (City of San Antonio Landmark) designed by Atlee B. Ayres and located at the northwest corner of Howard and West Laurel Streets. The Second is the Neoclassical Revival style Emmy Dittmar House at the northwest corner of Howard and West Cypress Streets (Photo 6). The latter is associated with the German-Texan Albert Dittmar family, which, under the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company, commissioned architect Richard Vander Straten in association with architectural firm Herff and Jones to design the adjacent Aurora Apartment Hotel and two related structures: a one-story commercial building, originally containing shops, fronting West Laurel Street and one-hundred car stucco-clad parking garage for guests (demolished c. 1970).
The Aurora is sited at the northeast corner of the block bounded by West Laurel Street to the north, Howard Street to the east, West Cypress Street to the south. The surrounding neighborhood developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as an upscale streetcar and automobile suburb. The 1951 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map depicts three large single-family residences, comparable in scale to the Emmy Dittmar House, on the western half of the block (Map 5). Also seen on the Sanborn are three smaller single-family residences. All six of these homes were demolished in the post-World War II period as automobile-related commercialization transformed much of West Cypress Street with low- and mid-rise development. The southeast corner of the block is now improved with a two-story commercial
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building constructed in the early 1970s (231 West Cypress Street). The tallest building in area surrounding Crockett Park, the Aurora continues to dominate its setting.
The Aurora is oriented towards Howard Street, from which it maintains a setback. Original front yard landscape features (along Howard Street) include a semi-circular asphalt surface driveway surrounded by a lawn, planting strips, and mature growth trees, and a sunken tile patio at the northeast corner of the parcel that was originally part of the Aurora’s coffee shop. An asphalt surface parking lot at the rear of the property occupies the former location of the demolished parking garage.
Exterior
General Exterior Characteristics
The Eclectic ten-story with basement and three-story rooftop penthouse building has an overall rectangular plan measuring approximately 220 feet long and 50 feet wide, with the “long” sides parallel to Howard Street. The Aurora’s Eclectic cast stone ornamentation features a blend of Spanish Colonial Revival, Beaux Arts, Art Deco, and Gothic Revival influences.1 The reinforced concrete with tan colored raked face brick building takes the form of a three-part vertical block with a clearly defined base, middle section, and parapet instead of a cornice. The smaller massing of the penthouse gives the building a stepped appearance and enhances its verticality and streamlined appearance, as viewed from street level. A rectangular circulation core, containing two elevator shafts and stairwells, projects from the center of the rear (west) façade. The back (west side) of the penthouse aligns with the core while the front (east side) maintains a setback from the Howard Street (primary or east) façade.
The Aurora’s richly ornamented 20-foot-tall base, which has an internal mezzanine, is faced with cast stone, rusticated to resemble limestone ashlar, on the primary and side (West Laurel Street or north, and south) facades, as well as the north and south portions of the rear (west) façade. The north side of the ground floor extends slightly beyond the bulk of the building’s nine-story portion, with small setbacks on the east and west sides, causing the base to have subtle asymmetry on the primary and rear façades. Cast stone ornamentation on the base is concentrated around windows and doors and consists of Eclectic decorative motifs, both in relief and in the round. A cast stone sill course with zigzags is positioned above the base. The middle section of the building consists of nine residential floors, each approximately 10 feet in height, with face brick and restrained cast stone ornamentation.
At the top of the building, a richly ornamented cast stone parapet surrounds a flat roof, originally tiled and used as a rooftop terrace (the tiles were removed at an unknown date). The penthouse, which also features an ornate cast stone parapet, has a flat roof. Both parapets feature Lombard bands, decorative shields, and prominent finials that help define façade bays and emphasize the building’s overall verticality. The north and south sides of the penthouse are adorned with blind cast stone arches.
The Aurora retains most of its original windows and exterior doors. Fenestration along the base consists of a combination of arched and rectangular metal casement windows with transoms and metal doors with transoms. The residential floors are consistently fenestrated with rectangular casement windows with transoms. The circulation core at the rear features a combination of fixed single-pane wood windows and operable one-over-one wood windows.
1 Jay C. Henry, Architecture in Texas, 1895-1945 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993) 130-131.
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Howard Street (Primary or East) Façade (Figures 1-5, 26; Photos 1-5)
Based on historic photographs, the primary façade of the Aurora has changed little since the building’s original construction (Figures 1-5). The façade, which can be viewed from a distance in Crockett Park, is appropriately the building’s most ornate and imposing façade. Overall, it is symmetrical in composition and divided vertically into five bays, with the middle and outer bays projecting slightly beyond the others. Centered on the ground floor, there is also a projecting entrance portal. The resulting effect is that of a highly undulated surface, accentuated by recessed balconies and projecting bay windows. In full sunlight during the morning hours, the façade becomes animated due the play of light and shadow.
The Aurora’s foundation stone is set in the base of the primary façade, immediately to the north of the projecting cast stone entrance portal (Photo 3). The entrance portal, extending the full height of the building’s base, is fitted with two sets of metal double doors with transoms. Cast stone surrounds with low relief detailing frame each set of doors. Above the doors is a metal canopy, supported by metal rods that are fastened to the façade, which is adorned with medallions and a crenellated band consisting of small, pointed arches. The base’s sill course continues around the entrance portal. Above the sill course, at either end of the entrance portal, is a cast stone pedestal supporting a large cast stone urn.
On the ground floor, the entrance portal is flanked on either side by two pairs of casement windows with transoms. The windows are surmounted by cast stone lintels with low relief detailing. Between each lintel and the sill course of the base, there is a groined support set below a vertical band of bay windows (described in more below). In each of the two bays flanking the central bay, there is a secondary entrance consisting of two metal doors below a shared transom. Each secondary entrance is flanked by a pair of metal casement windows with a shared transom and decorated with an ornate cast stone surround, stepped lintel, and hood consisting of brackets, corbels, and low relief panels. Each hood supports a vertical band of bay windows. In each of the outer bays of the ground floor, there are two pairs of metal casement windows with a single rectangular transom and arched transom. The arched openings are framed by cast stone moldings that are beaded on their inside face.
As noted above, the Aurora’s northern portion of the ground floor extends slightly beyond its nine-story middle section. This projection, which features the same cast stone rustication and sill course found on the rest of the base, is fitted with two pairs of joined metal casement windows with a shared transom (the windows have been blocked with plywood panels). Above the transom is an unadorned cast stone lintel and a cast stone decorative panel depicting two griffins in low relief.
In the middle section of the façade, the five vertical bays are further organized by brick pilasters. Four pilasters, capped above the parapet with cast stone finials, divide the central bay into three secondary bays. Below the finials, the brick is stepped at center to create, in relief, a subtle Zigzag motif. Additionally, at the two outer bays, the edges are defined by pilasters capped at the ninth floor with cast stone finials and above the parapet with two additional finials.
Regular vertical bands of balconies and bay windows add more interest to the middle section. On either of the two outer bays, there are fourteen recessed balconies, paired in groups of two, on the third through ninth floors. On the third through eighth floors, the balconies on the outer bays are enclosed with projecting, three-sided cast stone balustrades punctured with chevrons. On the ninth floor of the same bays, the balustrades do not project but otherwise feature the same decorative motif. At the top (tenth floor) of each outer bay, there are two suites, recessed to reveal terraces. The terraces are enclosed by cast stone parapets punctured with simple geometric shapes. Additionally, on the façade’s central bay, there are sixteen recessed balconies, paired in groups of two, on the third through ninth floors, all enclosed with projecting, three-sided balustrades that match those on the outer bays. On the tenth floor of the central bay, the balustrades do not project but are otherwise identical to those on the outer bays. Finally, there are four vertical
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bands of three-sided bay windows on the center and two flanking bays of the facade, extending from the second to ninth floors. On the ground floor, the two outer bands are supported by cast stone hoods consisting of decorative brackets, corbels, and relief panels. The two middle bands, in contrast, have ground floor cast stone groined supports. At the top of each of the four bands is a small balcony, enclosed with cast stone balustrades punctured with chevrons to match the others.
Finally, first floor of the penthouse’s primary (east) façade features two single doors flanked on each side by metal casement windows with a shared transom. Spanning the full height of the third floors above, there are four identical multi-pane windows set in openings that take the form of foiled arches. At the center of each window is a metal spandrel bearing a coat of arms.
West Laurel Street (North or Side) Façade (Photos 4 and 8)
The West Laurel Street (north or side) façades are both narrow and identical from the second floor up. The former differs slightly from the latter due to the one-story ground floor projection at the building’s north end. Historic photographs indicate that the base of this façade has undergone alteration (Figures 2-4). Originally, the base featured a single door on the east side below a canopy and small blade sign. On the north side, there were two single pane wood windows with transoms. The door opening has been resized and fitted with a new door. Additionally, the canopy and signage have been removed. While the windows remain, they have been blocked with plywood. Decorative cast stone panels depicting griffins, matching those on the primary façade, sit above the door and window openings.
The middle section of the West Laurel façade is flanked by brick pilasters terminating in cast stone finials at the parapet. Below, at the ninth floor, there is a metal fire escape which appears in historic photographs and is therefore assumed to be original.
South (Side) Façade (Photos 5 and 7)
The south (side) façade differs from the West Laurel Street façade only at the base. The rusticated cast stone base features a central pair of metal casement windows with a single rectangular transom and arched transom. As on the primary façade, the arched openings are framed by cast stone moldings are beaded on their inside face.
Rear (West) Façade (Photos 6-7)
In contrast to the primary façade, the rear (west) façade’s base is faced with rusticated cast stone at the north and south ends only. The course continues along the entire façade, but it is not denticulated in the area between the rusticated cast stone sections. Fenestration along the rusticated portions of the rear façade is asymmetrical. At the north end, where the one-story ground floor projection occurs, there are two pairs of metal casement windows, each with a shared transom. Above the windows is another cast stone panel depicting griffins. Immediately to the south, behind the projection, there are two pairs of metal casement windows with a single rectangular transom and arched transom. The arched openings are adorned in the same manner as on the primary and north façades. At ground floor of the rear façade’s ground floor are four single doors that provide rear and service access. At the south end, there are two identical window groupings, each consisting of a central fix metal window flanked on either side by a pair of metal casement windows with a shared transom. The fixed window on the far south side has been blocked to accommodate HVAC equipment.
The middle section of the rear façade is divided into five vertical bays, with the central bay projecting slightly beyond the others and extending up to the penthouse parapet. Each of the two outer bays is further divided into two bays by three brick pilasters, the middle being slenderer than the others and the outer terminating in cast stone finials at the
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parapet. The central bay, consisting of the building’s vertical circulation core, is further divided into four bays by five brick pilasters, the middle also being slenderer than the others and the outer ending in cast stone finials at the penthouse parapet. The circulation core is flanked by metal fire escape stairs and doors, which are likely not original. Other alterations to the rear elevation include the addition of access ramps, a metal trash chute, and infill of a single door on the north side.
At each end of the first floor of the penthouse above, there is a pair of operable one-over-one wood windows. Extending the full height of the third floors of the penthouse, there are four identical multi-pane windows set in openings that take the form of foiled arches. At the center of each window is a metal spandrel bearing a coat of arms. The windows rest of groined cast stone supports.
Interior
Basement (Figure 27)
The Aurora’s basement occupies the full length and width of the building. Originally containing a billiard room for male guests and trunk storage area, the basement is now unfinished with a mechanical room and various storage service areas. It has concrete floors, painted board- formed concrete walls, piers, ceilings, and beams, brick walls, hollow terracotta brick walls, concrete stairs, and an original freight elevator.
Ground Floor (Figures 6-9, 21, 28; Photos 11-16)
A comparison of original and current plans (Figures 21, 28) reveals that the Aurora’s ground floor, which originally contained its luxuriously appointed hotel amenities and office and service areas, is relatively intact. Guests arrived from the Howard Street entrance into the elevator lobby, the central feature of which was a tiled fountain adorned with bronze statues. The fountain, original light fixtures, and decorative metalwork in the arches on the north and south sides of the elevator lobby were removed in 1962. The fountain was replaced with built-in seating. The elevator lobby was also carpeted around this time, but the carpeting has since been removed, revealing the original tile floor.
The elevator lobby is accessed from a rectangular entrance vestibule. The elevator lobby, one of the building’s largest public spaces, features a rectangular plan, mosaic tile floors matching the entrance vestibule, plaster walls with wood wainscoting, arched niches, three wood-clad piers, wood ornamentation including finials, two pairs of metal ornamental elevator doors, plaster and paneled ceilings, and a wood cornice. The central pier is surrounded by upholstered seating with a tile base.
Immediately to the south of the elevator lobby is the fireplace lounge, which is intact along with the men’s restroom to the west. Further to the south is an area that underwent extensive alteration during the building’s conversion to senior housing, a project that was complete in 1982. This area originally contained an entrance corridor with two telephone booths (this area was accessed from the secondary Howard Street entrance at the south end of the ground floor), a serving room, and three spaces for women, a parlor, writing room, and restroom. Only the women’s restroom and telephone booths are intact, the latter having been moved to the west side of what was originally the parlor. The remaining spaces were reconfigured to accommodate an office, kitchen, and sitting area. At the far south end of the ground floor, male and female guests entertained in the reception room and adjacent sunroom, both of which remain. During the building’s conversion, a pair of double doors between the reception room and sunroom was removed.
The rectangular fireplace lounge has a tile fireplace with a large carved wood mantel inscribed with the House of Dittmar coat of arms and surmounted by stained-glass panels. The room also features a tile floor matching the elevator
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lobby, parquet flooring, plaster walls, wood wainscoting and paneling, plaster ceilings with wood beams, and arches, some infilled, on the north and south walls.
Further south, beyond the lounge, is the rectangular sitting area containing two wood telephone booths. This space has a tile floor matching the lobby. To the south of this area is a narrow rectangular corridor flanked by an enclosed kitchen with a linoleum tile floor on the east side and a carpeted administrative office on the west side. Originally the ladies’ parlor, this space does not retain any historic finishes.
At the far south end of the building are the reception room and attached sunroom, the former on the east side and the latter on the west side. Together, these two rectangular spaces are roughly the same size as the elevator lobby. The reception room is entered through a pair of mirrored French doors surmounted by blind arches above decorative corbels. The room features a parquet floor, plaster walls, wood moldings, central wood-clad pier, and plaster ceiling detailing. The sunroom, which is accessed from the reception room through two large rectangular openings, also surmounted by blind arches supported by corbels, centers around a large faience tile fountain on the north wall featuring a glazed ceramic lion head spout. The space also contains a clay and faience tile floor, faience tile wainscoting, and a barrel-vaulted ceiling surrounded by a band of faience tiles.
Immediately to the north of the elevator lobby is an office with service areas to the west (along the rear façade). The service areas, which originally included a bell boy’s station and two baggage areas, were partially reconfigured during the building’s conversion. At the far north end of the ground floor is a space that was originally used as a coffee shop, as well as an associated kitchen. The coffee shop is accessible from West Laurel Street. Originally, it was also accessible from the elevator lobby via a long corridor containing two telephone booths. The corridor, which can also be entered from the secondary Howard Street entrance at the north end of the ground floor, contains a staircase that leads to a mezzanine originally containing shops. During the building’s conversation, the kitchen was gutted, coffee shop access from the elevator lobby was blocked, the telephone booths were removed to accommodate a new mail area, and the mezzanine shops were turned into a residential unit.
To the north of the elevator lobby is the long rectangular corridor that runs along the east façade to a mail area and terminates at a staircase with a metal balustrade and infilled doorway, which provided access to the coffee shop. Between the lobby and corridor is an arched opening. The corridor is finished in a similar fashion to the lobby, with matching mosaic floor tile, plaster walls with wood wainscoting, plaster ceilings, and matching wood cornice. The staircase accesses a mezzanine originally containing shops, which have been converted into a residential unit. The former coffee shop, now vacant, has an irregular L-shaped plan and exposed concrete floor. The focal point of this space is a curved staircase with metal balustrade and tile walls which originally led to the aforementioned corridor.
The area north of the elevator lobby, along the rear façade, is occupied by public restrooms and service areas. The restrooms feature floor and glass wall tile, plaster walls, and some original toilets, urinals, and sinks. These areas generally retain their original configuration.
Residential Floors (Second-Tenth Floors, Figures 10-16, 22-24, 29; Photos 17-21)
A comparison of original and current plans (Figures 22-24, 29) reveals that the Aurora’s residential floors generally retain their overall original configuration, though rooms originally comprising suites have been turned into individual apartment units and new kitchens have been installed. Originally, the Aurora offered suites with private kitchens and bathrooms. Some bedrooms contained Murphy beds, allowing these spaced to be used as living rooms during the day. Larger suites had living rooms complete with fireplaces and multiple bedrooms. During the building’s conversion, kitchens were replaced, fireplaces were removed, and floors were carpeted. Residential floor corridors also received acoustical-tile ceilings. Various doors and windows have been infilled, with their outlines or surrounds still visible,
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including bathroom transom windows (originally for ventilation) and apartment entrances. Despite these alterations, many original bathrooms and built-ins remain.
The residential floors of the Aurora are generally repetitive in plan and will be described collectively. The west side is occupied by a long corridor that is bisected by a small elevator lobby. The corridor is carpeted and features walls with a plaster finish, and suspended acoustical-tile ceilings. The elevator lobbies have engaged columns with a plaster finish.
The apartment units are generally rectangular in plan and retain several historic features, including plaster-finish walls, wood doors and door surrounds, arched doorways, wood built-ins, balconies with balustrades, bay windows, kitchens, and bathrooms with floor and wall tile, bathtubs, sinks, toilets, and medicine cabinets. Floor finishes include hardwood flooring and non-historic carpet. While the residential floors generally retain their historic configuration, the apartments, originally consisting of multi-room suites, have been partitioned.
Roof Lobby and Roof (Figures 25, 30-32; Photos 9-10)
Used by the Aurora Roof Club for social events, the roof lobby originally had a wood floor and a serving room on the south side. During the building’s conversion, the space was extensively altered. During this time the wood floor was removed. The serving room was also removed in order to accommodate an apartment that also extends into the rear circulation core. On the north side, a laundry room and restroom were installed.
The roof, which is accessible from the roof lobby, was originally tiled and was also a place for guests to socialize and enjoy panoramic views of San Antonio. The roof floor tiles have been removed, likely during the building’s conversion, and replaced with a waterproof roof membrane. The roof has a cast stone parapet with cast stone detailing and waterproof roof membrane.
Penthouse Second and Third Floors
On the original plans, the second floor of the penthouse is noted as an “apparatus room” while the third floor is noted as a “machine room” (Figure 25). Apart from some new equipment, these rooms retain their original configuration and much of their original mechanical equipment. The two upper floors of the penthouse feature concrete floors, board- formed concrete walls, piers, ceilings, and beams, hollow terracotta brick walls, walls with a plaster finish, and mechanical equipment. The penthouse roof, accessed by a metal spiral staircase, has a cast stone parapet with cast stone detailing and waterproof roof membrane and contains mechanical equipment.
Commercial Building, 210-212 West Laurel Street (Contributing, Maps 4-5, Photos 22-28)
General Characteristics
According to the 1951 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, the building historically contained three shops. Nothing is known about its original appearance and interior configuration, as no historic photographs or drawings were found. The one- story with basement commercial building features a rectangular plan measuring approximately 75 feet long by 40 feet wide, with the “long” side parallel to West Laurel Street. The reinforced concrete with tan colored raked face brick building maintains a setback from West Laurel Street, towards which it is oriented, and has a flat roof. At the top of the West Laurel (primary or north) and side (east and west) façades is a cornice that is identical in design to the sill course on the Aurora’s primary and side façades. Because West Laurel slopes down towards the west, there is a concrete step at the northwest corner of the building to allow interior access.
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West Laurel Street (Primary or North) Façade
The primary (north) facade is partially obstructed by vegetation. This elevation is asymmetrical in composition and features four rectangular openings features fitted with replacement metal storefronts. Shallow rectangular recesses above the storefronts indicate that the building historically featured signage; however, no signage exists today. Below the storefronts, the brick is faced with green and tan glazed tile—particularly visible in the westernmost bay. There is also green and tan glazed tile, arranged in a simple geometric pattern, towards the top of the façade at the east and west ends and in between the storefront openings. The tile is likely original. The storefronts are shaded by replacement fabric canopies.
East and West (Side) Façade
The two side facades consist of unadorned face brick without any ornamentation. Alterations to the east façade include the application of electrical boxes.
South (Rear) Façade
Before its demolition around 1970, the Aurora’s parking garage was located only about eight feet to the south of the commercial building’s rear façade (Map 5). As such, the rear façade, which is of painted concrete, was not intended to be seen. The rear façade has four single doors (one on the south side, two in the center, and one on the north side) and a combination of rectangular and square window openings, several of which have been blocked. The existing multi- pane operable metal windows are possibly original.
Interior (Basement and Ground Floor)
The basement, which originally contained parking according to the 1951 Sanborn map, now serves as storage (Map 5). It is accessed by an exterior concrete staircase at the southeast corner of the building, and consists of board formed concrete walls, piers, ceilings, and beams. The interior of the ground floor, currently used as office space, has been extensively renovated and does not appear to retain any original materials other than its concrete floor beneath non- original carpet.
Alterations
The exterior of the Aurora Apartment Hotel remains largely intact, with the exception of the removal of a small blade sign on the north façade, blocking of a few ground floor windows and doors, addition of access ramps and a metal trash chute on the rear façade, and a few changes to the one-story ground floor projection along the north elevation. These alterations occurred at an unknown date. Although the ground floor retains most of its key original public spaces, some alterations occurred in 1962 and before 1982 when the building was converted to senior housing. In the elevator lobby, the fountain, original light fixtures, and decorative metalwork in the arches on the north and south sides of the space were removed in 1962. In anticipation of the 1982 conversation, several other interior alterations were made. On the ground floor, a pair of double doors between the reception room and sunroom was removed. Additionally, the area immediately to the north of the reception room, originally containing an entrance corridor with two telephone booths, a serving room, and three spaces for women, a parlor, writing room, and restroom was reconfigured to accommodate an office, kitchen, and sitting area. Moreover, to the north of the elevator lobby, service areas were partially reconfigured, the kitchen was gutted, coffee shop access from the elevator lobby was blocked, telephone booths were removed to accommodate a new mail area, and the mezzanine shops were turned into a residential unit. On the residential floors, meanwhile, kitchens were replaced, fireplaces were removed, some interior
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doors and windows were infilled and floors were infilled leaving surrounds, and wood floors were carpeted in former suites. Residential floor corridors also received acoustical-tile ceilings. In addition, the roof lobby was severely altered.
Storefronts were replaced on the primary elevation of the one-story commercial building, and the interior floor plan was reconfigured and historic materials were removed. The original 1930 parking garage was demolished around 1970 and a parking lot added to the site.
Overall Integrity Analysis
The Aurora Apartment Hotel is an excellent, intact, and rare example of an apartment hotel in San Antonio featuring an Eclectic architecture exhibiting various influences, particularly the Gothic Revival, and Spanish Colonial Revival styles, as well as Art Deco. The Aurora remains in its original location, and the surrounding suburban residential setting, including Crockett Park, has changed little since the period of significance despite some later intrusions. Apart from the removal of the parking garage around 1970, the original site plan containing both the Aurora and the one- story commercial building is intact. Integrity of design, materials, and workmanship is evident in the remarkably intact exterior featuring Eclectic cast stone and metal ornamentation and tan colored raked face brick. The Aurora also retains most of its original windows and exterior doors. Although the interior of the Aurora was renovated during its conversion to senior housing before 1982, the overall configuration of its ground and upper floors, including primary spaces, corridors, and walls between units, remains intact. Importantly, the Aurora still has most of its key original public spaces, including its elevator lobby, fireplace lounge, and reception room with attached sunroom, and staircases as well as several original apartment features such as built-ins, doors, casement windows, balconies, and bay windows. Many other historic finishes and features are intact including mosaic tile flooring, plaster walls, wood wainscoting, ornamental elevator doors, painted wood beams, parquet flooring, glass wall tile, and large faience tile fountain on the north wall of the sunroom with a glazed ceramic lion head spout. The property, which remains multi-family residential, continues to convey a feeling of, and significant associations with, a luxury residential high-rise constructed in the early twentieth-century through its prominent location and scale, decorative ornament, well-appointed public spaces, and apartment units. While the commercial building experienced alterations to its primary façade and interior, it is still in its original location and identifiable as a commercial building constructed during the early twentieth century, and, as noted above, its historic setting remains relatively unchanged. It also retains most of its exterior materials, including tan colored face brick, sill course, and glazed tile.
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Statement of Significance
The Aurora Apartment Hotel is located at 509 Howard Street in San Antonio, Texas. The property is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance as a rare and excellent example of an apartment hotel property type in San Antonio’s Northside, which developed as an upscale streetcar and automobile suburb. The Aurora is also significant for the high quality of its design as a luxury residential high-rise featuring Eclectic ornamentation reflecting a blend of Gothic Revival, Beaux Arts, and Spanish Colonial Revival styles, as well as Art Deco influences. Designed by architect Richard Vander Straten and associate architects Herff and Jones and built between 1928 and 1930, the apartment hotel and was the architect’s largest and most notable work. At the time of its completion, the Aurora was South Texas’ most lavish residential high-rise. Commissioned by the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company, comprised of members of the notable German-Texan landholding Albert Dittmar family, no expense was spared to build the Aurora which featured the latest amenities catering to the work and play habits of the upper and middle classes and seasonal tourists. The period of significance is the build date, 1930.
Population Growth and Suburbanization in San Antonio’s Northside (1860-1930)
Situated north of downtown San Antonio, the area surrounding the Aurora Apartment Hotel, including the adjacent Tobin Hill neighborhood, developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a streetcar suburb. In the decades following the Civil War, San Antonio established itself as a flourishing cattle, commercial, and military center in South Texas.2 With a population of 8,235 in 1860, San Antonio became the largest city in Texas.3 By 1890, its population had more than quadrupled, reaching 37,673.4 The city’s early growth owed much to the arrival of the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway in 1877, which brought a steady flow of new residents. The International-Great Northern Railroad extended into town in 1881, and by 1900, five additional railroads had followed.5 While the railroad connected San Antonio to other major centers of commerce and fueled the city’s economic prosperity, the local streetcar system, introduced in the 1870s and owned by Augustus Belknap (1841– 1889), also played a major role in its expansion.6 Suburbanization followed the streetcar as residents sought new homesites away from the city center and created demand for new shops and services wherever they went.
The land around Main Avenue, an important thoroughfare connecting the area to downtown and Main Plaza, was known in the late nineteenth century as Old Main Association and owned by Gillum & Yongue and other major landholders. In 1875, as part of a legal settlement between the real estate development firm and City of San Antonio, Gillum & Yongue donated two blocks flanking Main for use as a public park (Crockett Park, also known as Crockett Square of Twin Parks).7 The firm then subdivided the remainder of its approximately 177-acre holding, opening what would be named the Gillum Addition for development. The area received its first streetcar line, serviced by mule- drawn cars that ran between Main Plaza and San Pedro Park, in 1878. By 1919, electric trolleys, which had appeared in 1890, ran from Dallas Street to King’s Court, immediately to the west of Brackenridge Park.8 Streetcar-related
2 Handbook of Texas Online, Laurie E. Jasinski, "San Antonio, TX," accessed July 27, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hds02. 3 Handbook of Texas Online, Laurie E. Jasinski, "San Antonio, TX," accessed July 27, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hds02. 4 John L. Davis, San Antonio: A Historical Portrait, (Austin: The Encino Press, 1978). 31. 5 John L. Davis, San Antonio: A Historical Portrait, (Austin: The Encino Press, 1978). 31. 6 Handbook of Texas Online, S. W. Pease, "Belknap, Augustus," accessed July 27, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbe31. 7 The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “Crockett Park,” accessed July 27, 2020, https://tclf.org/crockett-park. 8 City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation, "Tobin Hill," accessed July 27, 2020, https://www.sanantonio.gov/historic/scoutsa/HistoricDistricts/Tobin.
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Aurora Apartment Hotel, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas SBR Draft commercial development was concentrated along major thoroughfares such as San Pedro Avenue, McCullough Avenue, and St. Mary's Street, with single-family residences lining the roads in between.9
The rise of automobile culture in the early twentieth century, especially after World War II, also contributed to San Antonio’s suburbanization and stimulated tourism in South Texas. With the car, it became possible to leisurely travel to San Antonio from neighboring cities or work in or near downtown while living in the suburbs. The Aurora originally featured a large parking garage (demolished c. 1970) catering to motorists, with a parking space provided for each guest. By 1930, when the apartment hotel opened its doors, San Antonio’s population had climbed to 200,000, and the city had several well-established and affluent Northside neighborhoods.
Numerous prominent families came to reside in the Northside between 1890 to 1930, and their large suburban villas featured architectural idioms fashionable at the time, including Late Victorian and various period revival styles such as the Neo-Classical Revival and Colonial Revival styles. Among these was the German-Texan Albert Dittmar family, owner and builder of the Aurora Apartment Hotel. The Dittmars constructed the high-rise on land they had owned since the late nineteenth century, immediately to the north of their family home.10 This opulent Neo-Classical Revival- style residence (Emmy Dittmar House, 505 Howard Street), built around the turn of the twentieth century, reflects the growing wealth of San Antonio before the Great Depression (Photo 5).11
The Albert Dittmar Family and Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company
The Aurora Apartment Hotel was one of the largest projects undertaken by the Dittmars, major South Texas landholders in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Albert Dittmar (1833-1887), a German immigrant from Darmstadt who arrived in South Texas in 1849, went on to control a significant amount of real estate. He was among the many Germans who emigrated to this region in the decades after Texas attained statehood in 1845. Indeed, until the mid-1870s, Germans comprised the majority of San Antonio’s residents, thereafter being outnumbered by native-born Anglos, mostly from the South.
Albert Dittmar studied law in Germany before journeying with his mother, Rosalie Leske Dittmar, and four siblings to the United States to join his father, Carl Anton Dittmar, who had arrived in 1848. Initially practicing law in Seguin and New Braunfels, Dittmar finally settled in San Antonio in 1859. During the Civil War, he served as an officer under James Duff, a Confederate irregular. Following the war, he briefly returned in 1867 to his homeland to marry Emmy von Rehfues (1849-1941), a native of Königswinter and relative of the Herff family, another prominent German-Texan landholder. In San Antonio, the couple had five children: Charles (1868-1944), Lily (1875-1907), Guido L. (1878- 1957), Mattie (1884-1940), and John A. (1885–1948).12 Charles and Guido went on to practice law, having studied at the University of Texas and University of Virginia, respectively, while John became involved in various business interests, including the Southern Welding and Machine Company. Excepting Lily, who died at a young age after marrying physician Richard A. Goeth (1874-1960), all of the Dittmar children helped manage the family’s real estate interests. None of the surviving children married.13
9 City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation, "Monte Vista," accessed July 27, 2020, https://www.sanantonio.gov/historic/scoutsa/HistoricDistricts/MonteVista. 10 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 11 UTSA Libraries Special Collections: Digital Collections, Emmy Dittmar Residence, 505 Howard Street, San Antonio, 1913, accessed July 27, 2020, https://digital.utsa.edu/digital/collection/p9020coll008/id/9220/rec/8; the Emmy Dittmar Residence is now a senior clinic. 12 Find a Grave, Memorial Page for Albert Dittmar, accessed November 27, 2020, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30966192/albrect- dittmar#source. 13 Find a Grave, Memorial Page for Dr Richard Anton Goeth, accessed November 27, 2020, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31887361/richard-anton-goeth; Texas Archival Resources Online, A Guide to the Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (1909-1944), accessed July 27, 2020, https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/drtsa/00145/drt-00145.html.
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Resuming his law practice after the war, Dittmar went on to partner with William E. Jones, W. B. Leigh, and finally John R. Shook and Thomas T. Vander Hoeven, resulting in the formation of the law firm he would remain with for the duration of his life, Shook, Dittmar, and Vender Hoeven. During his career, Dittmar, who had become a well-known San Antonian over the course of his career, served as district attorney and declined an offer to serve as San Antonio’s mayor. At the time of his death in 1897, the Dittmars controlled numerous properties in San Antonio and its environs. Their real estate ventures included the Central Development Company, which focused mainly on downtown San Antonio real estate, and Herff and Dittmar Land Company, which controlled undeveloped acreage in the Olmos Basin.
With planning underway by 1928, the Aurora Apartment Hotel was one of the Dittmars’ most ambitious and challenging endeavors. Members of the family formed the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company in 1929 to build the apartment hotel, a relatively new concept in Texas, and especially San Antonio, that combined apartment living with typical hotel amenities. Emmy Dittmar served as president, with Charles and Guido Dittmar as vice president and second vice president, respectively, John Dittmar as secretary-treasurer, and Mattie Dittmar as a partner.14 The timing was unfortunate; shortly thereafter, the Wall Street Crash occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression. After securing additional financing, the company inaugurated the building in August 1930. In its coverage of the opening, The San Antonio Light noted the final construction cost as $2,000,000, a considerable sum at the time.15 Experiencing much financial turbulence during the Depression, however, the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company was forced to sell the foreclosed property in 1936.16
The Apartment Hotel Type in Texas and San Antonio (1900-1930)
The Aurora Apartment Hotel is a rare example of its type in San Antonio. The apartment hotel, also known as the residential hotel or efficiency hotel, is most common in major American commercial centers, such as New York and Chicago. It combines two different modes of urban living, namely the fully furnished apartment with in-unit kitchen and the hotel with shared public spaces and services such as shops, concierge, and housekeeping. This confluence of lifestyles is succinctly expressed in an advertisement announcing the opening of the Aurora: “At the Aurora you may enjoy the smartness of a fine hotel and the comforts and privacies of your own home.”17 A review of period newspaper advertisements suggests that the term “apartment hotel” gained popularity around the turn of the twentieth century, though the concept most certainly existed earlier. In the United States, the building type remained fashionable from about 1900 to 1930, thereafter waning in popularity and entirely dying out by the end of World War II.18
An attractive aspect of the apartment hotel was that it allowed residents to choose the duration of their stay, typically by the day, week, or month. For the upper class, this model “perfected personal service, superior dining, sociability as well as privacy, physical luxury, and instant status” without the “routine responsibilities of managing a large house and garden.”19 For the middle class, it offered an affordable alternative to the single-family residence and access to upscale suburbs and luxury amenities. The comfort and convenience of the apartment hotel also appealed to the seasonal tourist, especially those from major cities where people were accustomed to the concept.
14 “S. A. Family Pioneers of South Texas,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 15 “S. A. Opens Palatial $2,000,000 Aurora Apartment Hotel; Structure is Among U.S. Finest; 100 Beautiful Apartment Homes & Elaborate Building,” The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 16 Texas Archival Resources Online, A Guide to the Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (1909-1944), accessed July 27, 2020, https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/drtsa/00145/drt-00145.html. 17 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 18 City of Los Angles, Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources, Los Angles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Commercial Development, 1859-1980, Hotels, 1870-1980, July 2017, accessed July 27, 2020. 19 Paul Erling Groth, Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994) 27.
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Apartment hotels were commonly located in upscale suburbs, away from bustling business districts but within walking distance of public transportation.20 Developers preferred lots along attractive tree-lined boulevards or parks, and the Dittmars were no exception; facing Crockett Park, the Aurora looks towards what a 1930 advertisement describes as “a sunrise…unfolding beautiful vistas toward the east.”21 The Aurora, like other suburban apartment hotels, incorporated balconies and a roof terrace into its design to fully exploit these views. Most apartment hotels took the form of a high- rise with around one-hundred units (including the subject property).22 By the 1920s, a typical unit included a fully stocked kitchen, dining area, and bath, and at least one bedroom, but more commonly, a suite of rooms. Murphy beds, which the Aurora originally offered its guests, allowed common areas to be converted into bedrooms.23 Shared amenities usually occurred on the ground floor, as at the Aurora, and ranged from shops, lounges, and meeting rooms to luxuriously appointed ballrooms and dining rooms.
Early luxury hotels and residential high-rises prefigured the apartment hotel. While the latter were relatively rare in San Antonio, the former dotted the city’s downtown. Built between 1909 and 1910, the St. Anthony Hotel (300 East Travis Street, NRHP 1986), overlooking Travis Park and designed by J. Flood Walker in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, was San Antonio’s first major luxury hotel. As such, it helped establish legitimacy for the city as an important southern destination. Several prominent hotels featuring various period revival styles followed, including the 1909 Gunter Hotel (205 E. Houston Street, NRHP 2007), 1909 Crockett Hotel (320 Bonham Street, NRHP 1977), 1914 Travelers Hotel (220 Broadway Street, NRHP 2015), and 1916 Lanier Hotel (demolished). The Robert E. Lee Hotel, designed by Herbert C. Green in the Beaux Arts style, typifies the three-part vertical block hotels of this time. One of the earliest known apartment hotels in Texas is the Stoneleigh Court Hotel in Dallas (2927 Maple Avenue), designed by architect Frank J. Woerner in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1923. Built in 1926, the Bushnell, designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by architect Robert Kelly, is the oldest known example in San Antonio (NRHP 1982). Like the later Aurora, the designs of these two apartment hotels took many of their cues from the hotels that preceded them but stood apart by introducing in-suite food preparation and dining facilities which made longer stays more comfortable.
The apartment hotel never gained widespread popularity in Texas. As in many other parts of the United States during the early twentieth century, the single-family home remained the dominant residential development pattern in the state, and residents were not favorably predisposed to the apartment lifestyle. The lack of apartment hotels in Texas is attributable to this preference. Additionally, the Great Depression halted the proliferation of the apartment hotel, and the trend never resurfaced in Texas after World War II. The scarcity of the apartment hotel in San Antonio is specifically observed in a 1930 article in The San Antonio Light announcing the Aurora’s opening: “Authorities on apartment buildings who have visited San Antonio in the last three years,” the article states, “have been amazed at the lack of buildings of this nature.”24 Nevertheless, it appears that there was still some demand for the apartment hotel in San Antonio from both residents and tourists. For example, the same article goes on to include a statement from the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce lauding the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company for addressing the city’s dire need for upscale tourist accommodations:
We have been watching with interest…and believe…that this building will meet the demands we have in our placement bureau every day during the tourist season for first-class apartment hotels. We believe that you have
20 20 Jay C. Henry, Architecture in Texas, 1895-1945 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993) 130-131. 21 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 22 “S. A. Opens Palatial $2,000,000 Aurora Apartment Hotel; Structure is Among U.S. Finest; 100 Beautiful Apartment Homes & Elaborate Building,” The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 23 City of Los Angles, Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources, Los Angles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Commercial Development, 1859-1980, Hotels, 1870-1980, July 2017, accessed July 27, 2020, https://planning.lacity.org/odocument/f492ac7e-4b42-4ab2- 95dd-2e27b2336138/Hotels_1870-1980_0.pdf. 24 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930.
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made a very happy selection in the site of the building. It is far enough from the heart of the business district to escape the noise and bustle of the city, yet not too far away for convenience in reaching the shipping district.25
The Bushnell, located in the upscale Monte Vista neighborhood, catered to the wealthy through its amenities and location near public transportation and the recreation facilities of Brackenridge Park. The building set a precedent for the Aurora both a residential high-rise and an apartment hotel in a suburban setting north of downtown. It must have left a particularly strong impression on the Dittmars who, only two years later, commissioned a larger and more luxurious version two miles to the south. In doing so, the family was taking a calculated risk, as the trend was relatively new to Texas at the time.
Chronology of Aurora Apartment Hotel
Plans for the Aurora, the Albert Dittmar family’s’ most ambitious undertaking, were underway by early 1928. The Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company retained architect Richard Vander Straten and associate architects Herff and Jones to design the apartment hotel, as well as two associated structures at the rear: a one-story commercial building facing West Laurel Street (extant, 210-212 West Laurel Street) and a one-hundred car garage for guests (demolished in c. 1970 according to historic aerial photographs) (Map 5). An early conceptual rendering by Vander Straten indicates that the original vision for the apartment hotel was far grander than what was ultimately realized (Figure 20).26 Based on the rendering, it appears that the architect envisioned an L-shaped building consisting of a thirteen-story with penthouse front wing along Howard Street and a nine-story side wing facing West Laurel Street. Plans for the Aurora were likely scaled down due to the financial turmoil the Dittmars faced at the start of the Great Depression. General contractor Edward W. Oeffinger built the final iteration of the Aurora and adjacent buildings. With construction complete within two years, the Aurora Apartment Hotel opened for business in the summer of 1930.
A March 11, 1928 article in The San Antonio Light proclaims, “The apartment hotel will be the finest in the entire South…and…one of the largest projects of its kind in San Antonio.”27 The same article goes on to explain to readers the advantages of the chosen site, including its proximity to “bus and street car facilities.”28 Upon the building’s completion, the Aurora also received its own Yellow Cab station with the latest “model luxurious Yellow cabs.”29 The location is further extolled in a 1930 article appearing in the same paper: “The location is ideal, in the neighborhood of Brackenridge park, with its golf courses, polo field and swimming pools and tennis courts; within easy reach of the business district and San Antonio’s numerous points of historic interest.30 A series of articles appearing in The San Antonio Light on Sunday, August 24, 1930 announced the Aurora’s opening in the upcoming week. As noted in one of them, the Albert Dittmar family had owned the land on which the apartment hotel was built, adjacent to their home on Howard Street, “for over half a century, awaiting the psychological time that San Antonio would receive such a project.”31 This site provided an opportunity for magnificent views over Crocket Park and towards the rising sun, inspiring the name “Aurora,” Latin for dawn.
The Aurora’s location, design, and amenities catered to both tourists and long- and short-term residents and their respective work and play habits. As a newspaper article boasted, the Aurora rivaled “Park and Lexington avenue, New York structures, which, for splendor of architecture and luxury of appointments, satisfy the most discriminating people
25 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 26 Richard Vander Straten, rendering of Aurora Apartment Hotel, 1928, Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (1909-1944), Daughters of the Republic of Texas. 27 “Dittmars Back 15-story $1,000,000 Apartment Hotel in S. A.,” The San Antonio Light, August 24, 1930 28 “Dittmars Back 15-story $1,000,000 Apartment Hotel in S. A.,” The San Antonio Light, August 24, 1930 29 “Aurora Roof Overlooks S. A.; Apartment Gets Cab Station; Beacon Light Shines Rays for 60 Miles,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 30 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 31 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930.
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Aurora Apartment Hotel, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas SBR Draft of wealth and refinement.”32 Indeed, the apartment hotel included several luxuriously appointed public spaces, familiar to those from the east (Figures 6-9). The A. B. Frank Company furnished the Aurora’s interiors, incorporating expensive antiques imported by the Dittmars from Europe, including their native Germany. In 1930, the Aurora Roof Club, a social club that would regularly gather in the building’s penthouse and on its roof terrace, formed. According to an advertisement appearing that year in the San Antonio Express, members, for an annual fee of ten dollars, could “enjoy all the privileges that the Roof Club has to offer from time to time, such as dancing and entertainment.”33 The advertisement contains a mailable slip for prospective members but does not indicate if membership was restricted (Figure 19). The club’s lavish dance parties were announced weekly at the Aurora.34 Years later, the Dittmars would apparently joke that Roof Club’s expenditures, not the Depression, were the cause of their financial demise.35
Shared spaces, concentrated on the ground floor as was typical for apartment hotels, included an elevator lobby with a central fountain adorned with bronze statues, an intimate lounge centered around a large carved wood mantle inscribed with the House of Dittmar coat of arms and surmounted by stained glass panels, a ladies’ parlor, and a spacious reception room with attached sunroom featuring a faience tile mosaic fountain. Also on this floor were a coffee shop with an outdoor sunken patio and a mezzanine containing shops. A 1930 newspaper article mentions a barber shop and beauty parlor, as well as cigar, flower, lingerie, and hat shops.36 Below, in the basement, male guests enjoyed a smoking and billiard room situated adjacent to a large trunk storage area. The roof, described in the San Antonio Express in 1930 as a “beautiful spot to inhale the clean ozone under the blue skies of San Antonio,” originally featured a checkered tile floor on which members of the Roof Club could dance and entertain.37 On the residential floors, one- hundred furnished rooms featured stocked kitchens with hot plates, private baths, fireplaces, balconies and bay windows, Murphy beds, walls with soundproof insulation, heating and forced feed ventilation, radios, flowing ice water, and hardwood floors (Figures 10-16).38 Each guest had a parking spot in a one-hundred car garage at the rear of the property. An unusual original feature of the Aurora was a rooftop beacon light which served as a navigational aid, casting a vertical beam that was visible from up to sixty miles away.39 This light does not appear to be extant.
With a final construction cost nearing $2,000,000, a substantial sum at the time, the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company spared no expense to achieve a structure “Among U.S. Finest,” as an opening week newspaper headline judged.40 The success of the project was short-lived, however, and the Dittmars, facing foreclosure in 1936, sold the property to a group of bondholders under the name Aurora Apartment Hotel, Inc.41 Around this time, the building was renovated, including the application of white paint over woodwork “to give additional light, brightness and cleanliness,” according to a late 1930s article from an unknown source.42 The building changed hands again in the 1940s when Chicago investors, headed by Louis Steinberg, took ownership.43 In 1962, Antonio Properties Inc., a San Antonio-based partnership between builder William Ochse, builder/developer Lloyd Denton, and insurance executive
32 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 33 “Join the Aurora Roof Club,” advertisement, The San Antonio Express, July 27, 1920. 34 “Aurora Roof Overlooks S. A.; Apartment Gets Cab Station; Beacon Light Shines Rays for 60 Miles,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 35 David Mumm, “A New Era Dawns for Aurora, San Antonio Monthly,” vol. 1, no. 4, January 1982. 36 The exact location of these shops is not known. It is also not known what shops occupied the associated commercial building at 210-212 West Laurel Street. 37 “Aurora Roof Overlooks S. A.; Apartment Gets Cab Station; Beacon Light Shines Rays for 60 Miles,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 38 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 39 “Aurora Roof Overlooks S. A.; Apartment Gets Cab Station; Beacon Light Shines Rays for 60 Miles,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 40 “S. A. Opens Palatial $2,000,000 Aurora Apartment Hotel; Structure is Among U.S. Finest; 100 Beautiful Apartment Homes & Elaborate Building,” The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 41 Texas Archival Resources Online, A Guide to the Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (1909-1944), accessed July 27, 2020, https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/drtsa/00145/drt-00145.html. 42 “Combining Artistry and Comfort in Aurora Modernization,” article from undated and unknown source, courtesy of Charles A. John, AIA. 43 “Aurora Purchased by San Antonians,” The San Antonio Light, February 4, 1962.
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James Ferguson, purchased the fully furnished property, retaining interior decorator Orville Carr to renovate the building’s aging interiors.44 Alterations carried out at this time included the placement of carpet over the elevator lobby’s tile floors and removal of its central fountain (Figures 8-9).
Once the most luxurious residential building in South Texas during the 1930s, the Aurora faced an uncertain future by the 1970s when apartment trends had drastically changed. During the early part of that decade, arrangements were underway to sell the property to investor Daniel Forestier who planned to extensively remodel the interior in order to accommodate a change of use to condominiums and office space. However, due to the 1973-1975 recession, the transaction never occurred. It is unclear what happened to the Aurora’s original furnishings, which were removed around this time. Also around this time, members of the Divine Light Mission, a religious organization then under the leadership of Prem Pal Singh Rawat, also known as Guru Maharaj Ji, took up residence in the building. By 1977, however, the Aurora was completely abandoned. Antonio Properties Inc., which still held the deed, then sold the property, which had suffered deferred maintenance over the course of almost four decades, to Dallas-based development firm Enter Construction and Maintenance, Inc.45
In October 1982, a $2.7 million renovation was completed with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding, which required interior alterations to convert the apartment hotel into senior housing. Changing hands most recently in 2007, the Aurora remains senior housing.46
Architect Richard Vander Straten (1896-1970)
Architect Richard Theodore George Vander Straten, Jr. (1896-1970), who designed the Aurora Apartment Hotel with associate architects Herff and Jones, was active from about 1920 to 1966 in San Antonio and neighboring communities including Terrell Hills and Alamo Heights where he designed numerous residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, and ecclesiastical buildings. Before preparing plans for the Aurora, his largest and most notable work, he designed several local buildings while renting an office in the 1920 Travis Building.47 Thereafter, he moved his practice to the nearby Milam Building which opened in 1928.48 It is unknown where Vander Straten received his architectural training. However, based on an analysis of his body of work, which spans the course of more than forty- five years, it is clear that he was experienced in Period Revival styles, popular during the early twentieth century, and highly versatile, comfortably designing buildings with very different functions, scales, and designs. The architect also embraced modern styles, including Art Deco and Streamline Moderne.
Vander Straten’s early work includes two San Antonio churches, the Gothic Revival St. Paul Lutheran Church (2303 South Presa Street), completed in c. 1925, and Romanesque Revival San Francesco Di Paola Church (205 Piazza Italia, RTHL 1991), completed in 1927.49 The latter, commissioned by the local Italian community, stands adjacent to the 1927 Christopher Columbus Italian Society meeting hall (201 Pizza Italia, RTHL 1992), which the architect contemporaneously designed, aptly in the Classical Revival style.50 The Aurora Apartment Hotel, completed in 1930, was prefigured in these three earlier buildings which feature brick facades and restrained cast stone ornamentation. Designed for a prominent San Antonio client, the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company, the Aurora was the architect’s largest and most publicized work, receiving considerable coverage in local newspapers at the time due to its choice location across from Crockett Park, towering scale, luxurious amenities, and high construction cost.
44 “Aurora Purchased by San Antonians,” The San Antonio Light, February 4, 1962. 45 David Mumm, “A New Era Dawns for Aurora, San Antonio Monthly,” vol. 1, no. 4, January 1982. 46 David Mumm, “A New Era Dawns for Aurora, San Antonio Monthly,” vol. 1, no. 4, January 1982. 47 David Mumm, “A New Era Dawns for Aurora, San Antonio Monthly,” vol. 1, no. 4, January 1982. 48 Advertisement for Richard Vander Straten, Architect, The San Antonio Light, May 12, 1939. 49 “St. Paul’s Lutheran Almost Completed,” San Antonio Express, December 22, 1924. 50 “S.A. Italians to Dedicate Building” The San Antonio Light, January 22, 1928.
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While Vander Straten does not appear to have designed other high-rise residential buildings, San Antonio and neighboring communities were dotted in the early twentieth century with his single-family residences, several of which still stand. Amidst the prosperity of the 1920s, he received a particularly large commission from Virginia-born entrepreneur, Alexander Burke Spencer (1869-1940), president of the A.B. Spencer Lumber Company, for whom he designed a sprawling three-story residence, which is no longer extant, about five miles northwest of downtown San Antonio.51 Shortly after its completion, the Spencer residence was noted in the San Antonio Express on October 9, 1927 as “one of several newly constructed palatial dwellings” along Vance-Jackson Road “drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars.” The same article describes the style as “modified French architecture” with “walls of native stone obtained 12 miles from [San Antonio] on Fredericksburg road [sic].”52 Not surprisingly, during the Depression years, Vander Straten’s domestic architecture tended to be much more modest in scale. In fact, an advertisement in the San Antonio Light on May 14, 1939 describes his practice as a “Residence Plan Service...For the Builders of Small Homes.”53 Despite their simpler appearance, several of his homes from this period were still featured in the San Antonio Express, including a two-story home completed in c. 1939 at 146 Charles Road in Terrell Hills,54 as well as two homes completed in c. 1941 in San Antonio, a two-story at 603 Kampmann Boulevard55 and a one-story at 312 Thomas Jefferson Drive.56 These homes are Minimal Traditional in style, exhibiting a vernacular expression of domestic architecture that emerged during the Great Depression and selectively incorporated elements from earlier Period Revival styles.
In 1928, as part of the Dittmar commission, Vander Straten designed a small brick commercial building on the same parcel as the Aurora. After World War II, with the rise of automobile culture and rapid commercialization of major corridors, there was a significant increase in demand for one-story retail strips, especially in the suburbs surrounding San Antonio. Taking advantage of this trend, the architect established himself in the design of fashionable retail strips catering to motorists. Two extant examples include the Arcadia Grove Shopping Center at 5200 Broadway in Alamo Heights, completed in 1949 for proprietors Max Grossman and Morris Evans, and a building for two premier specialty stores, the Pincus Company and Julian Gold, Inc., at 4109 McCullough Avenue in San Antonio, completed in 1961.57 Featuring the sleek Streamline Moderne style popular during the postwar period, these two buildings incorporated eye- catching signage and were positioned behind spacious parking lots.
In the late 1920s, Vander Straten designed a concrete and brick plant for the Western Cotton Oil Mill near the Union Stock Yards in San Antonio. A rendering for the building, which does not appear to be extant, was featured in The San Antonio Light on July 3, 1927.58 It is not known if he designed other industrial buildings.
Architect Richard Vander Straten, Jr. was born in San Antonio to Richard Vander Straten, Sr. (1868-1947) and Minna Duwe (1869-1950). His paternal great-grandfather, Joseph Vander Straten, a veteran of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grande Armée, emigrated from Antwerp, Belgium to Texas in 1846, eventually settling in San Antonio. The architect's grandfather, Theodore Vander Straten (c. 1826-1873), who accompanied his father Joseph to Texas, became an accomplished stone mason and eventually a general contractor in San Antonio. Theodore repaired the walls of the
51 The Vander Straten-designed residence of Alexander Burke Spencer appears to have stood near the intersection of Vance Jackson Road and Spencer Lane in San Antonio. 52 “Developments Draw Palatial Dwellings for Vance-Jackson Road,” The San Antonio Light, October 9, 1927. 53 Advertisement for Richard Vander Straten, Architect, The San Antonio Light, May 12, 1939. 54 “Colonial Types Popular in Local Building,” San Antonio Express, May 14, 1939. 55 “Asbestos Siding and Rock House,” San Antonio Express, April 20, 1941. 56 “100 Foot Frontage,” San Antonio Express, February 9, 1941. 57 “New Center Under Way in Heights,” The San Antonio Light, February 13, 1949; “Congratulations to Max Grossman and Morris Evans on the Completion of the New ‘Arcadia Grove,” The San Antonio Light, November 17, 1949; “Fashion Center Set on McCullough,” San Antonio Express and News, October 15, 1960. “Julian Gold Inc. Sets Valentine’s Day Premiere” and “Pincus Company to Open Second Store on Tuesday,” San Antonio Express and News, February 12, 1961. 58 “New S.A. Factory, Cotton Oil Mill, Begun,” The San Antonio Light, July 3, 1927.
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Alamo to prepare it for occupancy by the United States Army and oversaw the construction of many stone buildings in San Antonio, including the 1857 Menger Hotel where he lived with his wife, Francis Vander Staten (born c. 1827), until his death.59 Richard Vander Straten, Jr. was married to Dorothy Hillje (1901-1980) with whom he had two children who survived to adulthood, Richard Vander Straten III (1932-2016) and Emilie Payne. Their son went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin and become a civil engineer. Prior to his retirement in 1966, Richard Vander Straten, Jr. was a member of the City Council of Alamo Heights. He died in 1970 at his home in that city.60
Architectural Firm Herff and Jones
The firm of Herff and Jones was a partnership between two San Antonio architects, August A. Herff (1861-1946) and Fred Stanley Jones (1882-1965). In the 1920s, the firm rented an office in the San Antonio Loan and Trust Company building (235 East Commerce Street).61
August A. Herff was an early San Antonio architect, having established his practice in 1883. He oversaw the construction of numerous school buildings and served as architect for the Board of Education from 1906 to 1908.62 He was born in San Antonio to Ferdinand Ludwig Herff (1820-1912) and Mathilde Kungel Hoeffer (1823-1910), both natives of Germany. His father, who was of aristocratic birth, emigrated to Texas in 1847 where he helped organize a short-lived commune in Llano County called Bettina. Moving to San Antonio in 1850, Ferdinand become one of the city’s most prominent physicians and played a major role in the founding of its first hospital.63 August attended Polytechnical College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1883. Shortly thereafter, he returned to San Antonio and married Minnie Duerler (1867-1947), daughter of Gustav A. Duerler (1841-1928), a Swiss born candymaker and founder of the G.A. Duerler Manufacturing Company.64
Fred Stanley Jones, whose architectural career is not well documented, was born in Wales. After emigrating to the United States, he married Edna Jones (1877-1962), a native of Missouri, and settled permanently in San Antonio.65
Contractor Edward W. Oeffinger (1892-1972)
The builder of the Aurora Apartment Hotel, Edward W. Oeffinger (1892-1972), was a Texas-born general contractor based in San Antonio in the early twentieth century. Construction of the Aurora was a significant undertaking, suggesting that Oeffinger was well-qualified in his field. However, period newspapers make little mention of him. His wife, Helen Oeffinger (1892-1965), was a prominent San Antonian civic leader who helped organize the Women’s Auxiliary to the Salvation Army Home and Hospital and founded Grace Lutheran Hospital Auxiliary.66
Eclectic Architecture (1880-1940)
The Aurora Apartment Hotel is an excellent example of Eclectic architecture embodying many stylistic influences particularly Gothic Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Beaux Arts styles, as well as Art Deco.67 The design of the
59 Rex H. Ball and Samuel P. Nesmith, The Belgian Texans (San Antonio: The University of Texas, Institute of Texan Cultures, 1975) 6. Paul Erling Groth, Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994) 27. 60 Richard Vander Straten, obituary, San Antonio Express and News, February 7, 1970. 61 August A. Herff’s obituaries: “August Herff Rites Monday,” San Antonio Express, May 12, 1946; “August Herff Dies at Home,” The San Antonio Light, May 12, 1946; “Country’s Architectural Talen Drawn by S.A. Setting,” The San Antonio Light, August 21, 1926. 62 Ellis A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, eds., The New Encyclopedia of Texas, Vol. 1 (Dallas, Texas Department Bureau, c. 1930) 730. 63 Handbook of Texas Online, Vernie A. Stembridge, "Herff, Ferdinand Ludwig," accessed September 29, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/herff-ferdinand-ludwig. 64 Ellis A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, eds., The New Encyclopedia of Texas, Vol. 1 (Dallas, Texas Department Bureau, c. 1930) 730. 65 Fred Stanley Jones, obituary, San Antonio Express and News, July 14, 1965. 66 “Mrs. Edward Oeffinger, Civic Leader, Dies,” San Antonio Express, June 16, 1965. 67 Jay C. Henry, Architecture in Texas, 1895-1945 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993) 130-131.
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Aurora synthesizes these styles to achieve a unique hybrid architecture—particularly reflected in the application of casts stone ornamentation. Distinctions between these styles are not always obvious due to Richard Vander Straten’s creative license and tendency to abstract, as well as the fact that the various styles share certain characteristics.
Eclecticism emerged in the late nineteenth century and spanned through the early 20th century. The movement was separated into two waves: the first, which stretched from the 1880s to the 1900s, and the second which lasted from the 1920s to the 1940s. Architects that were educated in Europe or were influenced by the curriculum of the École des Beaux-Arts produced pure reproductions known as period revival styles including Italian Renaissance Revival, Neoclassical, Colonial Revival, Beaux Arts, Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, and the like. The World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, had a profound impact on the movement by heightening an interest in traditional styles derived from European models and allowing designers to achieve more accuracy in their interpretations.
The second wave of Eclecticism came in the 1920s. American soldiers that had fought in Europe saw and favored many of these traditional styles which contributed to their popularity and dissemination in the United States. Photographic prints and the proliferation of modern materials, such as cast stone and brick and stone veneers, made it possible to replicate traditional forms convincingly and inexpensively. Often, this traditional ornamentation was applied to new and often high-rise modern forms. In developing cities at the time, such as San Antonio, architecture familiar in European and established American commercial centers would have conveyed prestige and legitimacy. The Aurora’s chosen architectural vocabulary was thus an appropriate expression for what was once South Texas’ most luxurious residential building.68
Vander Straten designed the Aurora with applied Gothic Revival decorative elements. The permanence and emphasis on verticality seen in the Aurora design were clearly derived from both ecclesiastical and collegiate examples of early 20th century Gothic Revival architecture.69 Gothic influences are reflected in the building’s rich cast stone ornamentation, including finials, Lombard bands, decorative shields adorning the parapets above the roof and penthouse, and blind foiled arches on all four sides of the penthouse.
The influence of Beaux Arts classicism can be seen in the Aurora’s symmetrical masonry façade composition and incorporation of the three-part vertical block scheme consisting of a rusticated base, defined middle section, and parapet. The accentuated cornices, arched openings the ground level, the cast stone low relief detailing surrounding the ground floor entrances and windows, shields, and the metal entrance canopy also serve as Beaux Arts decorative elements.70
The design of the Aurora reflects very subtle influences of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. Exterior elements include arched openings and decorative urns above the central entrance. The Spanish Colonial character is more readily seen in the interior details such as painted wood ceiling beams, glazed floor and wall tile, and decorative metal work in the elevator lobby (removed in 1962).71 Spanish influence is specifically noted in a description of the just finished Aurora in The San Antonio Light:
68 Charlotte Adams, “Bailey-Moline-Filgo Building,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 2020, 15; Virginia Savage McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America’s Domestic Architecture (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014) 406-407. 69 Henry, Architecture in Texas, 76-77; City of Los Angles, Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources, Los Angles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Architecture and Engineering: Period Revival, 1919-1950, Housing the Masses, 1880-1980, Period Revival Neighborhoods, 1918-1942, January 2016. 70 Richard Longstreth, The Buildings of Main Street: A Guide to American Commercial Architecture (New York: Alta Mira Press), 93; City of Los Angles, Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources, Los Angles Citywide Historic Context Statement, Architecture and Engineering: Beaux Arts Classicism, Neoclassical, and Italian Renaissance Revival Architecture, 1895-1940, July 2018; McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, 475-479. 71 McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, 519-525.
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The Aurora is a ten-story apartment hotel built in the modern Spanish style of architecture. It is a very imposing and gracefully proportioned structure. The façade contrast of beautiful Indiana limestone and face brick gives the most pleasing results. The frame is of concrete and steel completely fireproof. It is built to endure.72
The Aurora also exhibits Art Deco influence. In 1925, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris, proliferated the Art Deco movement in decorative arts and architecture in North America. Art Deco can be characterized as a decorative response to modernity which signaled a departure from heavily decorative historical styles, and the emergence of new modern forms combined with more subdued applied decoration.73 It was a celebration of the machine-age technology, embracing the notions of progress and efficiency and emphasizing bold geometric forms, clean lines, and symmetry. From the late 1920s to World War II, Art Deco enjoyed immense popularity. Art Deco influence can be seen in the Aurora’s stepped massing, abstract geometric detailing, zigzags at the ground floor cornice, and most strikingly projecting balconies on the primary elevation fitted with balustrades punctured with chevrons, a common Art Deco motif.74
Comparative Analysis
Other Apartment Hotels in Texas and San Antonio
The apartment hotel is relatively uncommon in Texas. Two known examples in the state, which both predate the Aurora, include the Stoneleigh Court Hotel in Dallas (2927 Maple Avenue, NRHP 2007), designed by architect Frank J. Woerner in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1923, and Bushnell in San Antonio (240 Bushnell Avenue, NRHP 1982), designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style by architect Robert Kelly and completed in 1926.
The Stoneleigh was the largest apartment hotel in Dallas at the time of its construction and it established the type as a viable residential model in that city. It was also one of the Dallas’ most luxurious residential high-rises, setting the standard for similar buildings in the area. Built at a substantial cost of approximately $1.5 million, the project presented a risk to the owner and investors because the concept was not firmly rooted in Dallas at the time. The L- shaped, eleven-story reinforced concrete and brick building features a two-story rusticated base, comprised of glazed terra cotta tiles that resemble limestone blocks, and restrained terra cotta ornamentation.75 Due to the unprecedented scale and unique hybridized program of the Stoneleigh, it is likely that the building was known to the owner and architects of the Aurora. In fact, Richard Vander Straten’s original vision for the Aurora resembled the Stoneleigh in its three-part vertical block massing and L-shaped plan. Although Vander Straten ultimately reduced the Aurora in height and eliminated its north wing, resulting in a rectangular plan, he retained the three-part vertical block scheme consisting of a rusticated stone base, brick middle section, and ornamented parapet. The Aurora’s final construction cost exceeded the Stoneleigh by approximately half a million dollars. With its elaborate interiors and picturesque views of Crockett Park, the Aurora also rivaled the Stoneleigh in luxury.
As the Stoneleigh had done in Dallas, the Bushnell introduced the apartment hotel to San Antonio. Situated in the upscale Monte Vista neighborhood north of downtown, the Bushnell also set a precedent for the Aurora as a residential high-rise catering to the wealthy through its location near public transportation and the recreation facilities of Brackenridge Park. The seven-story with penthouse Bushnell, like the Aurora, is a three-part residential block with an
72 “Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. 73 Bevis Hillier and Stephen Escritt, Art Deco Style, (Phaidon Press, 1997) 38; Adam Jones and Alyssa Gerszewski, “Petroleum Building,” Houston, Texas, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 2019, 18-19. 74 McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, 579-582. 75 National Register of Historic Places, Stoneleigh Court Hotel, Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, 2007, National Register #07000989.
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Stylistically Similar Buildings in San Antonio
Downtown San Antonio contains several high-rises constructed before the Great Depression that share characteristics with the Aurora Apartment Hotel through their verticality, stepped massing, and combination of traditional and abstracted ornamentation. These include:
• 1926 Medical Arts Building (705 East Houston Street, NRHP 1977) designed by architect Ralph H. Cameron in the Late Gothic Revival style • 1928 Plaza Hotel (311 S St Mary’s Street, now Granada Homes) designed by architects Atlee B. Ayres and Robert M. Ayres in the Italian Renaissance Revival style • 1928 Milam Building (115 East Travis Street, NRHP 2015) designed in the Spanish Revival style by George Rodney Willis • 1929 Nix Professional Building (414 Navarro Street, NRHP 2017) designed in the Art Deco style by architect Henry Truman Phelps • 1929 Alamo National Bank Building (105 South St. Mary’s Street, now Drury Plaza Hotel; NRHP 2006) designed in the Art Deco style by architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst and White • 1929 San Antonio Express-News Building (301 Avenue E, NRHP 2017) designed in the Art Deco style by architect Herbert S. Green
Conclusion
The Aurora Apartment Hotel is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance as a rare and excellent example of an apartment hotel in San Antonio. Designed by architect Richard Vander Straten and associate architects Herff and Jones, the Aurora was, at the time of its completion in 1930, South Texas’ most luxurious residential high-rise. Commissioned by the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company, comprised of members of the notable German-Texan landholding Albert Dittmar family, no expense was spared to build the ten-story with basement and three-story rooftop penthouse building. Indeed, the final construction cost neared $2,000,000, a substantial amount in 1930 that far exceeded the cost to build the Bushnell, the Aurora’s earlier competitor in San Antonio.78
Noted for its rarity even at the time of its construction, the Aurora presented San Antonio’s upper- and middle-class residents an alternative to the quintessential American single-family home by combining apartment living with typical hotel amenities. This model also appealed to seasonal tourists, especially those who came from the east and were already accustomed to the flexible and comfortable lifestyle it afforded. The Aurora reflects its original use and the
76 National Register of Historic Places, Bushnell, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, National Register #82004491. 77 “Bushnell Apartment Building to Begin in December,” San Antonio Express, October 18, 1925; Advertisement for The Bushnell, The San Antonio Light, October 24, 1926. 78 “S. A. Opens Palatial $2,000,000 Aurora Apartment Hotel; Structure is Among U.S. Finest; 100 Beautiful Apartment Homes & Elaborate Building,” The San Antonio Light, August 24, 1930.
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The apartment hotel is relatively uncommon in Texas. Two known examples in the state, which both predate the Aurora, include the 1923 Stoneleigh Court Hotel in Dallas (2927 Maple Avenue), and 1926 Bushnell in San Antonio (240 Bushnell Avenue). The Aurora rivaled the Stoneleigh and Bushnell in luxury and overtook the latter as the most luxurious residential high-rise in South Texas at its opening in 1930. The Aurora exceeded its San Antonio competitor in height and quality of design and is one of the city’s few extant examples of an apartment hotel, and undoubtedly its finest.
The Aurora, the largest and most publicized building designed by Vander Straten, is also significant for the high quality of its design exhibiting Eclectic ornamentation reflecting a blend of Gothic Revival, Beaux Arts, and Spanish Colonial Revival styles, as well as Art Deco influence. The design of the Aurora synthesizes these styles to achieve a unique hybrid architecture that is a fitting expression for the prestige of the House of Dittmar and a premier residential high-rise. The building features a sleek and stepped massing, dominates its suburban setting, and commands stunning views over Crockett Park. The period of significance is 1930.
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Find a Grave. “Memorial Page for Albert Dittmar.” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30966192/albrect-dittmar#source.
Find a Grave. “Memorial Page for Dr Richard Anton Goeth.” https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31887361/richard-anton-goeth.
Groth, Paul Erling. Living Downtown: The History of Residential Hotels in the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Henry, Jay C. Architecture in Texas: 1895-1945. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.
Hillier, Bevis and Stephen Escritt. Art Deco Style. Phaidon Press, 1997.
Jasinski, Laurie E. "San Antonio, TX," Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hds02.
Jones, Adam and Alyssa Gerszewski. “Petroleum Building.” Houston, Texas. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, 2019.
Longstreth, Richard. The Buildings of Main Street: A Guide to American Commercial Architecture. New York: Alta Mira Press.
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Mumm, David. “A New Era Dawns for Aurora, San Antonio Monthly,” vol. 1, no. 4, January 1982.
Pease, S. W. "Belknap, Augustus.” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbe31.
R.R. Bowker LLC. “American Architects Directory,” first ed., 1955-1956. https://aiahistoricaldirectory.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AHDAA/pages/20644319/1956+American+Architects+ Directory.
San Antonio Express
“St. Paul’s Lutheran Almost Completed,” San Antonio Express, December 22, 1924.
“Bushnell Apartment Building to Begin in December,” San Antonio Express, October 18, 1925.
“Colonial Types Popular in Local Building,” San Antonio Express, May 14, 1939.
“100 Foot Frontage,” San Antonio Express, February 9, 1941.
“Asbestos Siding and Rock House,” San Antonio Express, April 20, 1941.
August A. Herff’s obituary: “August Herff Rites Monday,” San Antonio Express, May 12, 1946
“Fashion Center Set on McCullough,” San Antonio Express and News, October 15, 1960.
“Julian Gold Inc. Sets Valentine’s Day Premiere” and “Pincus Company to Open Second Store on Tuesday,” San Antonio Express and News, February 12, 1961.
Fred Stanley Jones, obituary, San Antonio Express and News, July 14, 1965.
“Mrs. Edward Oeffinger, Civic Leader, Dies,” San Antonio Express, June 16, 1965.
Richard Vander Straten, obituary, San Antonio Express and News, February 7, 1970.
The San Antonio Light
“Country’s Architectural Talen Drawn by S.A. Setting,” The San Antonio Light, August 21, 1926.
Advertisement for The Bushnell, The San Antonio Light, October 24, 1926.
“New S.A. Factory, Cotton Oil Mill, Begun,” The San Antonio Light, July 3, 1927.
“Developments Draw Palatial Dwellings for Vance-Jackson Road,” The San Antonio Light, October 9, 1927.
“S.A. Italians to Dedicate Building” The San Antonio Light, January 22, 1928.
“8 Stories in First Unit of Large Building,” The San Antonio Light, Mary 11, 1928.
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“S. A. Family Pioneers of South Texas,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930.
“Dittmars Back 15-story $1,000,000 Apartment Hotel in S. A.,” The San Antonio Light, August 24, 1930.
“Aurora Roof Overlooks S. A.; Apartment Gets Cab Station; Beacon Light Shines Rays for 60 Miles,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930.
“Description Reveals New Design, Detail,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930. Advertisement for A. B. Frank Company, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930.
“Antiques, Tiles Beautify Building; Aurora Built by Leading Contractors,” with accompanying advertisements, The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930.
“S. A. Opens Palatial $2,000,000 Aurora Apartment Hotel; Structure is Among U.S. Finest; 100 Beautiful Apartment Homes & Elaborate Building,” The San Antonio Light, August 24 1930.
Advertisement for Richard Vander Straten, Architect, The San Antonio Light, May 24, 1939.
August A. Herff’s obituary: “August Herff Dies at Home,” The San Antonio Light, May 12, 1946.
“New Center Under Way in Heights,” The San Antonio Light, February 13, 1949.
“Congratulations to Max Grossman and Morris Evans on the Completion of the New ‘Arcadia Grove,” San Antonio Light, November 17, 1949.
“Aurora Purchased by San Antonians,” The San Antonio Light, February 4, 1962.
Stembridge, Vernie A. Handbook of Texas Online, "Herff, Ferdinand Ludwig," accessed September 29, 2020, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/herff-ferdinand-ludwig.
Texas Archival Resources Online. “A Guide to the Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (1909-1944).” https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/drtsa/00145/drt-00145.html.
University of Texas San Antonio Libraries Special Collections: Digital Collections. “Emmy Dittmar Residence, 505 Howard Street, San Antonio, 1913.” https://digital.utsa.edu/digital/collection/p9020coll008/id/9220/rec/8.
“Combining Artistry and Comfort in Aurora Modernization,” article from undated and unknown source, courtesy of Charles A. John, AIA.
Architectural Drawings
Conservation Society of San Antonio. Richard Vander Straten (architect), Aurora Apartment, 1929. Hotelhttps://www.saconservation.org/.
Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Richard Vander Straten (architect), Aurora Apartment, 1929. http://www.drtinfo.org/.
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Map 1 Bexar County, Texas
Map 2 San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas
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Map 3 Google Earth Map of Aurora Apartment Hotel, 509 Howard Street, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, accessed September 9, 2020
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Map 4 Aerial map showing nominated boundary (yellow) and contributing Aurora Apartment Hotel and Commercial Building (red).
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Map 5 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, vol. 1, sheet 41, 1911 (updated 1950 and 1951)
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Figure 1 Aurora Apartment Hotel, primary (east) façade with Crockett Park in foreground, view southwest, 1930 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 2 Aurora Apartment Hotel, primary (east) and north (side) facades, view southwest, 1930 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 3 Aurora Apartment Hotel, primary (east) and north (side) facades, view southwest, date unknown Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 4 Aurora Apartment Hotel, primary (east) and north (side) facades, view southwest, 1962 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 5 Aurora Apartment Hotel, detail of main entrance on primary (east) façade, view northwest, 1962 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 6 Aurora Apartment Hotel, elevator lobby, c. 1930 Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 7 Aurora Apartment Hotel, elevator lobby, c. 1930 Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 8 Aurora Apartment Hotel, elevator lobby, c. 1962 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 9 Aurora Apartment Hotel, elevator lobby, 1962 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 10 Apartment Hotel, apartment living room, c. 1930 Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 11 Aurora Apartment Hotel, apartment living room, c. 1930 Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 12 Aurora Apartment Hotel, apartment living room, c. 1930 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 13 Aurora Apartment Hotel, apartment living room, c. 1930 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 14 Aurora Apartment Hotel, apartment living room, c. 1930 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 15 Aurora Apartment Hotel, apartment living room, c. 1930 Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 16 Aurora Apartment Hotel, apartment living room, date unknown Courtesy University of Texas at San Antonio
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Figure 17 Advertisement announcing opening of Aurora Apartment Hotel, The San Antonio Light, August 24, 1930
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Figure 18 Advertisement for Aurora Apartment Hotel, c. 1930 Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 19 Advertisement for Aurora Roof Club, San Antonio Express, July 27, 1930
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Figure 20 Aurora Apartment Hotel, early conceptual rendering by Richard Vander Straten (architect), c. 1928 Courtesy The Daughters of the Republic of Texas
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Figure 21 Original drawings, ground floor, Richard Vander Straten (architect), 1929 Courtesy The Daughters of the Republic of Texas
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Figure 22 Original drawings, second floor plan and other details, Richard Vander Straten (architect), 1929 Courtesy Conservation Society of San Antonio
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Figure 23 Original drawings, floors 3-6 plan and other details, Richard Vander Straten (architect), 1929 Courtesy Conservation Society of San Antonio
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Figure 24 Original drawings, floors 7-8 plan and other details, Richard Vander Straten (architect), 1929 Courtesy Conservation Society of San Antonio
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Figure 25 Original drawings, penthouse plans and other details, Richard Vander Straten (architect), 1929 Courtesy Conservation Society of San Antonio
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Figure 26 Original drawings, primary (east) elevation, Richard Vander Straten (architect), 1929 Courtesy Conservation Society of San Antonio
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Figure 27 Basement, current plan Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 28 Ground floor, current plan Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 29 Floors 2-10, current plan Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 30 Roof lobby and roof, current plan Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 31 Penthouse second floor, current plan Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Figure 32 Penthouse third floor, current plan Courtesy Charles John, AIA
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Photo 1 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0001) Primary (east) façade with Crockett Park in foreground, view west
Photo 2 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0002) Detail of main entrance on primary (east) façade, view southwest
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Photo 3 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0003) Detail of foundation stone on primary (east) façade
Photo 4 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0004) Primary (east) and north (side) façades, view southwest
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Photo 5 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0005) Primary (east) and south (side) façades, view northwest
Photo 6 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0006) Rear (west) and façade, view east
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Photo 7 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0007) Rear (west) and south (side) façades, view northeast
Photo 8 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0008) Rear (west) and north (side) façades, southeast
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Photo 9 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0009) Roof and penthouse, view northwest
Photo 10 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0010) Roof and penthouse, view southwest
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Photo 11 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0011) Elevator lobby, view southwest
Photo 12 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0012) Lounge, view west
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Photo 13 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0013) Reception room, view southwest
Photo 14 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0014) Detail of fountain in sunroom, view north
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Photo 15 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0015) Ground floor corridor, view north
Photo 16 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0016) Coffee shop, view south
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Photo 17 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0017) Typical residential corridor
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Photo 18 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0018) Typical apartment entrance vestibule, view east
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Photo 19 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0019) Typical apartment interior, view northeast
Photo 20 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0020) Typical apartment interior, view northwest
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Photo 21 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0021) Typical apartment bathroom
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Photo 22 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0022) Commercial building, primary (north) façade, view south
Photo 23 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0023) Commercial building, primary (north) and east (side) façades, view southwest
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Photo 24 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0024) Commercial building, primary (north) and west (side) façades, view southeast
Photo 25 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0025) Commercial building, rear (south) façade, view north
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Photo 26 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0026) Commercial building, rear (south) and west (side) façades, view northeast
Photo 27 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0027) Commercial building, rear (south) and east (side) façades, view northwest
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Photo 28 (TX_BexarCounty_AuroraApartmentHotel_0028) Commercial building, typical tenant space interior, view west
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