401 Torcido Drive

This is the only Texas work by the noted California architect, George Washington Smith, responsible for creating Spanish Colonial Revival architecture’s Santa Barbara style, based on such elements as thick stuccoed walls with deep openings for windows and doors and heavy overhangs with carved wooden corbels. Smith tended to rely on less complicated massing than did many who practiced in the style. Well screened from the road by trees, this house is arranged around a large central courtyard. Access from the outside is provided by a simple doorframe set in the otherwise planar exterior wall. Dramatic interior ceilings recall those of the Alhambra. This is considered one of the most impressive courtyard-oriented homes built in the nation at that time.

‘San Antonio Architecture, Traditions and Visions’, AIA San Antonio, 2007