Franklin, Thomas H., House
105 E. French Pl., San Antonio, TXThe Franklin House is a rare example of a transitional Queen Anne-Shingle style residence in San Antonio and stands as an important architectural landmark in the locally designated Monte Vista Historic District.
Built in 1891 for a prominent San Antonio attorney, the Thomas H. Franklin House at 105 East French Place Is a rare example of a transitional Queen Anne-Shingle style residence in San Antonio and stands as an important architectural landmark in the locally designated Monte Vista Historic District. James Riely Gordon designed the two-story, wood-frame residence, and Eugene Davis was the contractor. Gordon, a San Antonio architect who later moved to New York, is well known for his public buildings, many of which are listed in the National Register (e.g., the Wise County and Bexar County courthouses), but the Franklin House represents one of Gordon's relatively few residential designs. Stylistically, the Franklin House is unusual not only for the Monte Vista neighborhood, which displays numerous examples of Queen Anne and Classical Revival residences, but for the entire city as well. Standing virtually unaltered but in only fair condition, the Franklin House is situated on the campus of San Antonio Academy and will hopefully soon be rehabilitated for use as administrative offices for the school.
Thomas H. Franklin was born in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, on March 4, 1854, the son of George Anson and Mary J. Clifton Franklin. Franklin was admitted to the bar in 1874 in Louisiana, but came to Texas in 1876. During his distinguished legal career, which spanned five decades. Franklin was an outstanding supporter of law enforcement in Texas. He was a senior member of the law firm of Denman, Franklin, and Denman, and served as president of the Texas State Bar Association. In later years he limited his practice to civil law, but his earlier career as a prosecutor attracted the attention not only of Texas governors, but also of President Grover Cleveland. Cleveland appointed him special prosecutor to investigate election-law violations, and later to prosecute several people charged with train robberies in Texas. Franklin was active in local and national civic affairs and was a member of numerous social organizations. He married Marianna Jackson on January 18, 1883, and they had two children: a son who died as a young man and a daughter, Marianna Catherine, who married CoL W.L. Hart. Thomas Franklin died on March 23, 1932.
On March 21, 1890, Thomas H. Franklin, with the intent of erecting a new house, purchased a lot at the northeast corner of East French Place and Main Avenue, and during the next year contracted Eugene Davis to build the house which James Riely Gordon had designed. Three years later. Franklin added a porte cochere and a carriage house. Franklin lived in the massive residence for over 40 years, until his death in 1932.
James Riely Gordon, designer of the house, was a prominent San Antonio architect during the late 1800s. Born in Virginia in 1863, but raised in San Antonio, Gordon is best known for his Romanesque Revival county courthouses throughout the state. Many of these extant masonry structures are listed in the National Register and include the courthouses for Wise, Ellis, Fayette, Gonzales, Victoria, Hopkins, Lee, and Comal counties. The majority of his projects in Texas involved public, institutional and commercial buildings, but the Franklin House represents an important and rare example of one of his residential designs. After moving to New York in 1902, Gordon began to specialize almost exclusively in public buildings, and worked on the staff of the Architect of the Capitol. He was supervising architect for the construction of the United States Post Office, Court House, and Customs House in San Antonio, and also designed the Capitol at Phoenix, Arizona. Highly respected with his peers, Gordon served for 13 terms as president and chairman of the board of directors of the New York Society of Architects, and was made honorary president of that organization.
F.M. Conlon bought the house in 1932, and his wife taught piano lessons in the house to students of St. Mary's Hall. In 1941, Franklin's daughter and son-in-law purchased the house and lived there until July 1944, when they sold it to Saint Mary's Hall for $25,000. The residence became a dormitory for senior girls. San Antonio Academy, a private school for boys, acquired ownership of the property in 1969. Plans for the structure are to employ the house for administrative offices for the school and for apartments for faculty members, an excellent example of adaptive reuse.
Bibliography
University of Texas at Austin, Archives of Architecture Library, data on T.H. Franklin House.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.