Olmos Park, an independent, incorporated suburb now engulfed by the city, was developed in 1927 by H. C. Thorman four miles north of the city on sixteen hundred acres of land. The plan was dominated by a series of curving streets radiating from a central circle in the residential park idiom similar to Highland Park in Dallas (1907) and River Oaks in Houston (1924), yet a country club was never planned for the community. The lots were platted from seventy-five to more than one hundred feet in width and up to three hundred feet in depth. In 1926 the 1,941-foot dam across Olmos Creek just east of Olmos Park was completed, creating a bridge that connected Olmos Park to Alamo Heights and downtown. When Thorman decided to implement restrictive covenants in January 1927 requiring houses to cost at least $7,500 and that all exterior finishes be of masonry, the sale of lots improved. As a result, Olmos Park became a highly restricted, elite neighborhood in the late 1920s, and most of the houses date from then to the 1940s. Thor-man incorporated Olmos Park as a city in 1939, and the community became affiliated with the Alamo Heights Independent School District. Today, the rolling landscape of the neighborhood is dominated by oaks, many of which have grown to considerable size.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.