Villa Finale presents: A European Concert Series!

If any of our blog-reading audience has been to Villa Finale, they will have noticed that Walter Mathis was a lover of music in his home, as well as a great supporter of the performing arts in his beloved San Antonio. This passion inspired Villa Finale staff to organize a concert series featuring vocal music from Germany, Italy and France. The series is generously supported in full by Mr. and Mrs. (Laurie) Thomas Saylak of Scarsdale, New York in honor of our first council chair and Walter Mathis’s niece, Jessie Mathis Kardys.

The front Napoleon Parlor; Photo by Carol Highsmith.

The concerts will be held in the front Napoleon Parlor and we will make use of one of the largest objects in our collection, the Bechstein-Welte grand piano, which has been tuned, repaired and ready to play! The vocalists are talented graduate students from the University of Texas at San Antonio Music Department who will sing German lieder (romantic songs) and arias during the first concert on December 8th, duets and arias from Italian opera for our February 16th concert and French operatic arias, duets and melodies for the final concert March 22nd. An optional tour, focusing on decorative and fine art in Villa Finale’s collection originating from the evening’s featured country, will be given after each concert.

Villa Finale has held only one other concert in the Napoleon Parlor, and that was a French-themed concert that occurred last March, part of a series of events held at Villa Finale in conjunction with San Antonio French Cultures Month. The audience was captivated by two sopranos who performed French songs and excerpts from French opera. It was a magical evening in a beautiful setting and we’re looking forward to replicating this amazing experience, threefold!

Admission for each of the concerts is $15 for Friends of Villa Finale or National Trust members, $25 for non-members.  Space is limited, please call (210) 223-9800 during business hours to make your reservations.  Pre-paid reservations only, please.  People with paid admissions meet at the front gate of Villa Finale at 401 King William Street; gate opens at 5:30 pm, concert begins promptly at 6:00 pm.

Dates for “Villa Finale Presents – Concert Series 2011-2012″
December 8, 2011: “Frohe Weihnacten!” German Holiday Concert – featuring music of Mozart, Schubert, Tchaikovski and Wolf
February 16, 2012: “A Trip to Italy” Italian Concert – featuring music of Cilea, Donizetti, Mozart, Rossini and Vivaldi
March 22, 2012: “From the French Salon to the Stage” French Concert – featuring music of Bachelet, Delibes, Duparc, Gounod and Massenet

Conservation Celebration!

This fall season has been a wonderful time at Villa Finale…the reasons?  We’ve had fifteen objects return from their long summer sojourns in conservators’ studios.  Three Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922) oil paintings and twelve mantel clocks came back to roost in the past two months. 

"Pool on the Guadalupe," before treatment.

The paintings, thanks to a generous grant award from the Dallas-based Summerlee Foundation, were cleaned and stabilized.  Through no fault of anyone, just age, they had issues such as actively flaking and lifting paint, discolored varnish, unsuitable or no backing, improperly executed retouching, losses or punctures and overall discoloration. Mark van Gelder of Art Conservation Services of Austin painstakingly handled all of those issues, cleaning inch by inch with cotton swabs, repainting where paint had flaked, tightening the canvas and stabilizing the frame.   Van Gelder conserved on one small painting entitled Valley Near Williams Ranch – Twenty Miles West of Kerrville, which hangs in Villa Finale’s Dining Room, one medium-sized Texas bluebonnet painting and one very large painting entitled Pool on the Guadalupe River. 

Here is where I will be perfectly honest with you, dear reader: previously I did not care for, in the least, Pool on the Guadalupe River.  It was a muddy, dark painting with no depth whatsoever and something or someone had punctured the painting right in the center of the pool.  But when I went to van Gelder’s studio to see the finished product, my jaw hit the floor.  Here before me was a stunning deep river pool, greenish-gray, lined with limestone ledges and stands of fall trees in the background.  It was wonderful! I understood why Onderdonk painted this scene and why Walter Mathis acquired it.  It was a pleasure to behold. 

"Pool on the Guadalupe," after treatment.

So not only do your eyes get a treat at Villa Finale, your ears will too when you hear the chime of our many clocks.  Their repair was another grant funded project, this time from an award from the National Trust’s Historic Sites Fund.  

The clocks add a liveliness and warmth to the house that Mathis enjoyed – the sound and movement of the clocks also give energy and vitality to the current interpretation of the museum.  It goes without saying that the clocks are also an important part of Villa Finale’s decorative arts collection and are inherently valuable.  They date from the mid- to late 1800’s and are primarily French.       

My colleague, Sylvia Gonzalez-Hohenshelt and I put together a little video about the clocks for your viewing pleasure:   CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO

Beating the Texas drought through organic landscape maintenance

For those of you that are not located in South Texas, or anywhere in Texas for that matter, we have had a very challenging year when it comes to keeping a lush landscape. Not only was it very hot, very often, but it was very dry, also. As you drive around San Antonio, yard after yard is burnt to a crisp. We at Villa Finale, are charged with not only being stewards of the objects in Mr. Mathis’s collection and buildings, but also the beautiful landscape that he created. This presented a very challenging problem for us to solve.

Villa Finale's green front lawn: product of organic maintenance.

San Antonio gets all of its potable water from the Edwards Aquifer. So, during times of drought, we are placed under watering restrictions. The watering restrictions are graduated and correlate to the level of water in the Aquifer. For most of this summer we were, and still remain, in Stage 2 watering restrictions. What does that mean for those of us that are required to keep our landscapes alive and healthy? It makes things much more challenging. You may water by hand and use drip irrigation any day, but you can only use sprinklers and soaker hoses on your designated day of the week and only between the hours of 3 AM to 8 AM and 8 PM and 10 PM.

We adhered strictly to these restrictions, but we had an ace in our pocket. We use organic methods to manage our landscape. By simply using what nature gives us in the form of normal yard waste, and a knowledge of how mother nature used to provide everything that it needs to sustain itself for many years prior to our creation of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, we have started to revitalize our landscape at Villa Finale. By using compost and Vermicompost, worm castings, we can create almost everything that we need right here on site to successfully manage the health and vitality of our landscape even in the severe conditions that we have endured this past year.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. All year I have heard comments from our guests, “You must not be adhering to the watering restrictions.” “Has it been raining more in San Antonio than the rest of Texas?” “Your yard is so green! What is your trick?” No tricks. We just have invested a little bit of money and have taken the time to learn from the lessons that nature used to care for its self long before we came along. I am not trying to say that it has been easy to get the results that we have, but it worked. So, what was the final score? Well, I would not call this game over yet, but I would at least say that we are ahead.

Villa Finale staff celebrates its first anniversary of public tours

Now that we have completed our first year of public tours, Villa Finale Guide, Becky McColley and her husband, Joe were gracious enough to host a potluck at their residence this past weekend to mark the occasion.

While Becky and Joe provided the main entrée, members of our staff brought along a variety of tasty dishes such as arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), deviled eggs, au gratin potatoes, and several delicious desserts.  Best of all, however, was the company that evening – we certainly couldn’t ask to work with a better group of people.  Villa Finale’s National Trust staff recognizes the invaluable contributions our volunteer corps makes each and every single day.  While it may sound cliché, we certainly couldn’t do everything we do without our wonderful Volunteer Staff.

Thank you again, Villa Finale staff — here’s to a long future to come!

Would you like to be a part of our Volunteer Staff?  Click here for more information or to download a volunteer application.

My visit to a Texas civil rights treasure

A little over a week ago I had the pleasure of visiting the former Corpus Christi clinic of Dr. Hector P. Garcia, founder of the American G.I. Forum and civil rights leader.  The building is now in danger of being lost – however, a group of caring individuals is currently mobilizing to save the structure.  In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I was invited to write about my visit for the National Trust’s blog at PreservationNation.org.  Click here to read the story.

I have included more photographs of my visit here for readers of Villa Finale’s blog.  Now that Villa Finale is a National Trust Historic Site, we want to make people aware of the importance of historic preservation as well as inspire others, much like Walter Mathis did, to become actively involved in the effort.

If you would like to join the preservation movement and the vision of Villa Finale, we invite you to consider a membership to our site which includes a number of benefits.  Click here for more information.

A farewell to Sandra Smith

Sandra Smith, director of Villa Finale, a National Trust Historic Site in Texas, has recently been appointed the Director of Education and Visitor Services at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This senior management position provides oversight of all public and community programming, the museum shop and café, and the site’s facility rentals at the six-floor, 275,000 square foot museum and research facility.

Smith provided important leadership as the first director of Villa Finale, culminating last fall in the public opening of the site. Over the past five years, she assembled an exemplary staff, oversaw many extensive construction projects, developed the visitor experience, and opened the visitor center. Michael Anderson, Development and Marketing Manager, will serve as the Acting Director while the National Trust begins the search for a new Director.

Sandra’s last day at Villa Finale will be August 18, and she will begin at The History Center after Labor Day. Please join us in offering our heartiest congratulations on her new appointment. — Max van Balgooy, Director of Interpretation and Education at the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Vermicomposting at Villa Finale

Vermicompost bin.

Here at Villa Finale we have chosen to take the organic or “green” approach when caring for our landscape. One of the things we have taken on to help us accomplishing this goal is creating our own vermicompost bin to process our kitchen waste that in turn gives us nutrient rich vermicopost. To accomplish this task a special worm is needed, the Red worm ‘Eisenia Foetida’. Although they do look similar to the common earth worm you see in your garden this worm naturally thrives above the soil where it can get to all the decaying plant matter that falls to the ground. They feed on this and produce a natural fertilizer that is great for all your plants. These guys are not native to the US, they come from Europe and Asia; this species is the best to use when creating your own vermicoposting bin. One of the reasons these guys are the best is their giant appetite, a pound of worms can eat up to three and a half pounds of food a week! That’s half a pound a day and they can also lay eggs every seven days giving them the ability to multiply quickly.

So how do you go about making a vermicomposting bin? Well, here at Villa Finale, we have made a wooden box with a cover using untreated wood. We placed the box below ground only leaving the top exposed. This allows the temperature to stay relatively stable in this South Texas heat. Worms thrive and do best when their bedding temperature is between 55 – 77 degrees Fahrenheit, anything above 84 degrees can be harmful. When I say bedding this means the material in which the worms live and can move around freely. Bedding can be made up of anything from shredded paper and cardboard to dry leaves and manure. Here we us a mixture of finished sifted compost made on site and decayed shredded leaves. We wet this down pretty good so the material feels moist to the touch but not dripping wet. The worms need a moist environment to survive. We add the bedding about 12-16 inches deep in our worm box, our worms seem to love and thrive in this environment. This is just one of the ways to create your own bin, you can use anything from plastic tubs to store bought worm bins.

Worm castings.

Feeding your worms is an important part of the process, like I said before one pound of worms can go through up to 3.5 pounds of food a week. Yes, the worms do also feed on the decaying leaves, shredded paper or compost you use for bedding but they love to devour your everyday kitchen scraps. Uncooked fruit or vegetables and coffee grounds can all be added to your bin to satisfy their appetite. It’s best if you collect your kitchen scraps and let them naturally start to brown and decay. This helps later when adding them to the bin, if the scraps are fresh and green they can create heat when naturally decomposing in the bin and this heat can harm the worms.

 
Depending on how small or large of a bin you have, regularly collect the worm castings and replacing the bedding is very important. Too much worm castings in the bin and not enough bedding can be toxic to the worms so judging how often to do this important. Here at Villa Finale we collect the castings about 2-3 times a month, this is one of the advantages to regular composting as vermicomposting can take up to 1/3 of the time traditional composting does. The worm compost or castings you collect should look like dark black coffee grounds. This is where all the nutrients are. Worm compost improves the soils ability to hold water, it increases the beneficial microbial activity in the soil, it helps to aerate your soil and prevent compaction, it decreases the chances of pests and disease attacking your plants and it can have up to 5-11 times the N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) than regular soil. Applying this natural fertilizer to your garden or landscape can be as easy as sprinkling it around your plant or in your pots, mixing it into your soil or like we do here creating a “Compost Tea” and applying it as a soil drench or foliar feed. All these ways are very beneficial to your lawn or landscape and are environmentally friendly.

A glimpse in time: The Meusebachs

The Ellis-Meusebach House today.

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting  Sarah Reveley, a sixth-generation Texan who is scheduled to speak at the Villa Finale Visitor Center in the fall about the Texas Historical Commission’s efforts to save damaged historical markers and historic buildings throughout Bexar County (click here to see Sarah’s website).  Being lovers of history, she and I began to talk about family heirlooms – this is when she mentioned letters written by her great-aunt Emmy Kailer relating her visit with the Meusebach [Moys-a-bach] family at their home on King William Street.  Of course, this immediately peaked my interest because the Meusebach home is right across the street from Villa Finale and it was one of the first houses purchased and restored by Walter Mathis in the King William neighborhood.

Here’s a little bit of background on the Meusebach family.  Baron Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach, who later adopted the name John O. Meusebach, arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1845 as the new commissioner-general for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas.  In August 1845, John founded the town of Fredericksburg which served as a second stop en route to the Fisher-Miller Land Grant.  At roughly 40 years old, John married 17-year-old Countess Agnes of Corenth with whom he had eleven children: only seven of their children would reach adulthood.  Two of their sons, Otto and Max, lived at the house at 414 King William Street (then numbered 416) in the 1890s. 

A portion of Emmy's original letter to her mother.

Otto Meusebach had purchased the home in 1889 from original owners Smith and Josie Ellis for $2,500 (that’s over $60,000 in today’s values), and he, his wife Martha, sons Kurt, John and daughter Anita all moved in.  Max lived with his brother Otto’s family until about 1892.  By all accounts, the Meusebach brothers were colorful characters, especially around San Antonio’s bars.  If you haven’t had a chance to hear about them, I invite you to listen to the Meusebach house’s audio on our cell phone tour, The King William Homes of Preservationist Walter Mathis. 

Now let me get back to Sarah Reveley’s great-aunt, Emmy.  (The exact connection between the Kailer family and the Meusebachs is unknown although it is likely Emmy’s father, Eugen Kailer knew the Meusebachs through business connections.  Eugen was once editor of New Braunfel’s Zeitung newspaper.)  Emmy visited the Meusebachs in San Antonio all the way from her home in New Braunfels in September, 1898.  Written entirely in German (thanks to Sarah for sending translations), on September 19 Emmy tells her mother how much she wants it to stop raining so she and Anita Meusebach could go to the theater … one can only imagine how terrible it was to navigate the muddy streets of the city back then!  Emmy’s mother wrote back the next day saying:

How happy I am that you’re doing well and arrived safely!  I’m only a bit scared that you won’t like it here anymore, when you’re being spoiled in San Antonio.  We’ve already shied away from the weather and thought about whether it’s raining where you are.  It’s rained a lot here and the paths and walks are so muddy that one doesn’t think about going out.

Emmy wrote back on September 22nd telling her mother how much she is enjoying going to the theater, even attending matinees with Anita Meusebach, how she plans to buy her little sister Hildegarde a fan (Hilde is Sarah Reveley’s grandmother), and about one of the Meusebach’s chickens singing to her every morning at her window.  It is easy to see the young Emmy’s excitement at being in the “big city” and spending time with the teenaged Anita Meusebach.  It is very sad to think that only two years later in May 1900, 16-year-old Anita would die of peritonitis.  

Peritonitis, an inflammation of the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity, is caused by a bacterial infection and was a common cause of death, especially maternal death, in the 19th century.  Infections spread into the abdominal cavity and were typically associated with poor hygiene – the practice of washing one’s hands was still in its infancy.  Mortality rates fell dramatically after people began practicing good hygiene, especially in the medical field.

Announcement of Anita Meusebach's death, May 1900.

Regardless of the reasons for Anita Meusebach’s death, the tragedy was surely devastating for the family.  In 1902, Otto sold the home on King William Street – he died the following year.  His sons went on to prosper, however.  Kurt became a coal merchant and John went on to be the treasurer of the San Antonio Machine and Supply Company.  Click this link to see an 1880′s photograph of Baron Meusebach’s sons: [Ernst, Otto, and Max Meusebach, sons of John O. Meusebach] :: ITC – General Collection.

A very special THANK YOU to Sarah Reveley for sharing her great-aunt’s letters with Villa Finale.  Emmy Kailer has given us great insight into the Meusebach family and life in late 19th San Antonio.

 

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter to receive more information on Sarah Reveley’s presentation in the fall and other programs at Villa Finale by sending your email address to VillaFinale@nthp.org.

Staying “in tune” – update on our “Music for Your Eyes” tour and more

Walter Mathis's Edison Cylinder Phonograph.

Since its debut last April, our Music for Your Eyes tour has become one of our most popular programs selling out each time it has been offered (click here for tour information).  I am one of the ”hosts” for the musical experience as is Meg Nowack, our curator, and Syeira Budd, Villa Finale’s Community Programs Coordinator.  During the past four months, my colleagues and I have enjoyed sharing historic information behind Walter Mathis’s music machines as well as demonstrating these wonderful items. 

Walter Mathis loved music and enjoyed filling his home with its beautiful sounds.  Among the demonstrations on the tour are the circa 1912 Deluxe Model Violano Virtuoso, two Victorian music boxes, an Edison Cylinder Phonograph, and the grand finale of the 1910 Bechstein-Welte reproducing piano - I cannot tell you how many people have left the tour humming or whistling to the piano’s melody!  People on our tours have enjoyed hearing the rich history of the machines and the background information to some of the songs played.  All of the items on the tour are diverse in machinery as well as origin.

Meg demonstrates the reproducing piano.

South Texas as a whole has a wonderful musical history which is influenced by its diverse population.  Once part of Mexico and strongly influenced by Mexican border states, “Tejanos” of the era soon mixed their musical traditions with those of European immigrants.  It isn’t difficult even for the most “untrained ear” to hear the Waltz and Polka influences in Tejano music.  Make sure you check out the “Tejano Explosion” event during Fiesta San Antonio.      

Speaking of European immigrants, German music in Texas can be traced back as early as the 1830s with the arrival of the first settlers here.  The polkas we all associate with the very popular Oktoberfest originated in 19th century Bohemia.  The German version of this genre, also known as “Oompah,” is very identifiable by its use of the tuba, clarinet, trombone and of course, the accordion.  If you would like to get a feel for what the King William neighborhood would have been like during the late 19th century, visit the Beethoven Maennorchor on Pereida Street on First Friday or during one of their Gartenkonzerts - you will not be disappointed!   

One of the music boxes demonstrated on the tour.

Of course, any mention of Texas and music wouldn’t be complete without a nod to Country music.  In Texas, the genre is uniquely influenced by its many immigrants: Spanish, Mexican, French, German and more.  San Antonio has a variety of historic venues where people enjoyed live country music performances during the genre’s golden era including The Majestic Theater, the Empire Theater – where Gene Autry performed – and the Aztec Theatre.  If you would like to take a trip back in time, the Aztec Theatre hosts the San Antonio Rose Live show which is a tribute to classic country music in an equally classic venue.

If you enjoy music, and enjoy little historical tidbits like those I mentioned, make sure you join us on the next Music for Your Eyes tour.  The experience is a treat for your eyes … and ears.

A picture is worth 1,000 words

Dillard R. Fant in front of Villa Finale, ca. 1904.

If you have been following our blog, you may have read a series of posts I wrote in 2009 called “The Perils of 401 King William,” a five-part series relating the story of Villa Finale’s many owners.  It’s fascinating that despite the home’s many high-profile occupants, very few early photographs of the property are known to exist.  Until this week, the earliest photograph our staff had ever seen of the house dated to about 1915 when the property was owned by Eva and Dwight Potter.     

Earlier this week I received an email from Frederick and Patsy White; Patsy is the great-granddaughter of Dillard R. Fant, one of the twelve owners of 401 King William Street.  Fant was a well-known trail boss who is credited with extending the famous Chisholm Trail to Corpus Christi.  His wife, Lucy, daughter of original Texas settlers, was involved in many charitable organizations in San Antonio.  The couple had ten children; Patsy White’s grandmother, Lucille, was number eight.  You can read more about the Fants’ ownership of the house in my original blog post here.

Lucille Fant and James South, ca. 1905.

I personally have been fascinated with the history of Villa Finale’s ownership and have given presentations on the subject, sharing the few photographs we have in a PowerPoint presentation.  You can imagine my excitement when I discovered Frederick and Patsy were kind enough to forward snapshots of the Fant family taken on the property during their ownership … this was a thrill!  My excitement was doubled when Anita South, whose husband is a great-grandson of Dillard Fant, forwarded various snapshots of the family.  It’s amazing how you can read about these people from the past, but it isn’t until you see their images that they really come to life.

On behalf of Villa Finale’s staff, I would like to thank Patsy, Frederick and Anita for helping us with our ongoing research into Villa Finale’s ownership.  Dillard R. Fant and his family are definitely an important part of the home’s long and fascinating history.

Fant family, ca. 1890s.