San Antonio Public Library
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Dolph and Janey Briscoe Western Art Museum (San Antonio Public Library)
1930, Herbert S. Green; 2011 renovation and addition, Lake/Flato Architects and Ford, Powell and Carson. 210 W. Market St.
This is San Antonio's finest example of the sort of stripped classicism favored by architects Paul P. Cret and Bertram G. Goodhue. The former public library's entrance detailing, with sculptural forms emerging from the masonry walls, strongly reflects Goodhue's Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. Several elements of the design and decoration indicate the building's original function as a library, including the Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation above the front door and windows to the book stacks on the rear facade. Following the library's move in 1971, the building housed the Hertzberg Circus Collection, which moved to the Witte Museum in 2007. The building reopened in 2011 as a museum, named in honor of benefactor Dolph Briscoe, a former governor of Texas. With an emphasis on the art of San Antonio and the South Texas region, the additions and renovations respect the architecture of the original library.
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Location: San Antonio, TexasRegional Overviews:Architect:Styles:no metadata availableMaterials:
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Citation
Gerald Moorhead et al., "Dolph and Janey Briscoe Western Art Museum (San Antonio Public Library)", [San Antonio, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-SA43.
Print Source
Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 156-156.
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