San Antonio Loan and Trust Building
235 E. Commerce St., San Antonio, TXThe San Antonio Loan and Trust Building is an excellent example of a Victorian commercial structure using Classic details to project solidity and tradition in design. A refined architectural composition, the building reinforced the position of Texas' first trust company as a milestone in the state's commercial development. The edifice was constructed for the trust company by George W. Brackenridge, its principal owner and possibly Texas' best known early philanthropist.
George W. Brackenridge was one of San Antonio's outstanding businessmen and civic leaders, as well as an early University of Texas benefactor. He was born in Indiana and came to Texas prior to the Civil War. Brackenridge established the first nationally chartered bank in Texas in 1866 (see First National Bank, San Antonio, National Register, March 1972) whose building is adjacent to the San Antonio Loan and Trust Building.
In 1892, Brackenridge organized a trust company in conjunction with the other banks in San Antonio. At that time. Federal government regulations prevented national banks from having trust power. Brackenridge recognized the local need of the cattle barons and other entrepreneurs (the cotton and railroad investors, etc.) to have the service of advice and counsel in matters relating to their estates. The San Antonio Loan and Trust was incorporated under a state charter and occupied another building on Commerce Street until 1903 when the present structure was completed.
Brackenridge headed at the same time, the trust company, the local school board, the city waterworks, and the San Antonio National Bank. He was a director of the San Antonio Express Publishing Company and formed the cotton firm of Brackenridge, Bates, and Company. Brackenridge started in the cotton business after taking over the sale of cotton which his father received in lieu of confederate money, having been a Union sympathizer.
Brackenridge was a regent of the University of Texas from 1886 to 1911, and again from 1917 to 1919. His benefactions to that institution were many, including B Hall on the campus in Austin, a dormitory for the first women medical students in Galveston, and five hundred acres of land in Austin which the University still holds.
The San Antonio Loan and Trust Building, constructed in 1901-1903, was designed by G. Voorhees on property which Brackenridge purchased adjacent to the First National Bank. Upon completion of the trust building, Brackenridge, who was a bachelor, lived with his sister Eleanor in the upper three floors, using one for their quarters, one for servants and the other for a ballroom. At his death in 1920, Brackenridge left a will which confirmed his position as San Antonio's greatest benefactor. The San Antonio Loan and Trust building is now privately owned and is being restored for use as offices and apartments. It retains its splendor as a monument to George W. Brackenridge and his financial genius.
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Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
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.