Ethel Wilson Harris House

Built in 1956, this was the home of Ethel Wilson Harris, an artisan, patron of the arts, and the first woman to manage a national historic site in Texas. The property was designed by her son, Robert, in the Modernist style. At the time of the home's construction, Harris was working as the park manager for the Mission San José, a position that she held from 1938 to 1963. For many years, she also sold her own handcrafted pottery and tile art in the granary building at the mission. During the 1930s, Harris oversaw tile art projects in the city through her appointment as the local technical director of the Arts and Crafts Division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Her one-story stone residence was built within what is now the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park, operated by the National Park Service.

From 1938 to 1963, Ethel Wilson Harris served as the park manager for the Mission San José, a state park which became a national historic site in 1941. Harris was the first woman in Texas to manage a state park, and she was one of the first women in the U.S. to supervise a national historic site. As a widow, she requested permission to move into a small apartment located within the mission, which allowed her to keep an eye on the property and prevent vandalism. Harris was also an artisan, selling her own handcrafted pottery and tile art at the mission's gristmill through a small business that she called Mission Crafts. She was also a patron of the arts, devoted to the revival and celebration of Mexican Arts and Crafts. During her life, she dedicated herself to the preservation of historic landmarks throughout San Antonio, and she oversaw the creation of several tile murals in the city. As founding member of the San Antonio Conservation Society, Harris later served as the organization's president.

In 1937, Harris copyrighted a book of her artistic designs, including a full-blooming maguey (agave) plant to reflect her individual mark of craftsmanship. In 1939, she was appointed as the local technical director of the Arts and Crafts Division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in San Antonio, where she worked with a team of sixty local artisans in the creation of decorative clay tiles. Although these clay tiles were not sold directly to the public, they were made available to various charitable organizations and civic associations within the city. While supervising Arts and Crafts projects for the WPA over the next two years, Harris contributed to the creation of several tiled murals, two of which are still visible along San Antonio's River Walk. During the same period, she also modified her own craftsman's mark, so that the maguey plant incorporated the WPA logo.

Amidst her work for the WPA, Harris continued to serve as park manager for twenty-five years, and a residence was built for her in 1956, just outside the perimeter walls of the Mission San José. The home was designed by her son, Robert, in a Modernist style reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Usonian' designs. These were small, sparse one-floor homes with few rooms, usually without basements. However, the six-room stone and concrete house built for Harris incorporated high ceilings, extensive use of glass, 'flowing spaces,' clerestories to provide natural light, and a 'daylight basement.' At the front of the home is a wrought-iron gate from Oaxaca, Mexico. As reflected in her lifelong practice of pottery making and handcrafted tile art, Harris continued to promote traditional crafts, using her house as a showcase for her collection of Mexican Folk Art, along with her own creations. After retiring in 1977 from the business that she founded in the early 1930s, Harris continued to live at the property until her death in the 1980s. Her home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

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Ethel Wilson Harris House, Flickr / National Register of Historic Places. September 24th, 2010. Accessed March 15th, 2023. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalregister/5020557726/in/photostream/.

Ethel Wilson Harris House, Mission Trails Historic Sites. Accessed March 15th, 2023. https://www.sanantonio.gov/Mission-Trails/Mission-Trails-Historic-Sites/Detail-Page/ArtMID/16185/ArticleID/4427/Ethel-Wilson-Harris-House/ID/51.

Ethel Wilson Harris House, Nomination Form, National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service. April 3rd, 2001. Accessed March 15th, 2023. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/ea92ba76-7298-4189-90b5-c2a35c60bce0.

"Ethel Harris' Mexican Arts & Crafts pottery", Doorway Into the Past. September 6th, 2014. Accessed March 15th, 2023. http://doorwayintothepast.blogspot.com/2014/09/ethel-harris-mexican-arts-crafts-pottery.html.

Frost, Susan Toomey. Colors on Clay: The San José Tile Workshops of San Antonio.

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