For both local history and European artifacts, culture and art, the house is worth an afternoon tour.
With much oral history, facts are scarce.
The land that Villa Finale sits on was part of an original Spanish land grant to the Canary Island pioneers. The Mission de Bexar. Yes, that Alamo.
The street that runs a few blocks east of Villa Finale is South Alamo. Runs in front of the Alamo, then follows a course that runs north-south, then east-west, then turns north-south again. The local joke is that cattle The strange twists and turns of the local topography was dictated water sources, both natural and manmade.
Walter Mathis would trace part of his family lineage back to the Canary Island pioneers, providing that Villa Finale was destiny.
The stylized front porch and tower was not added until the decade between 1895 and 1905. Standing in the front, looking at the house itself, the style is mid-1850 Italian.
The fun part, for me, I heard two different salaried curators claim the house was built in 1863 and 1873, and from the material, the accepted date was 1873, built by an Englishman named Norton. It was four square, just 4 rooms with a fireplace in each room, the typical quarried limestone with an unfinished surface. Mr. Norton had the front door shipped over from England, intact, a huge, carved door frame and door, with an imposing look. named King William - mercantile German class, he was the solo English holdout.
Norton lost the house to foreclosure, and it changed hands two more times, with the last family in the 1890s not leaving without a fight.
During that time, the back section of the house, a large kitchen and cellar, was added.
And we have not even stepped inside yet.
There are two magnificent lions flanking the front walk. Walter Mathis was a Leo, but no, those were Victorian influences, as were two ceremonial cannons. Mr. Mathis told tales about the early days when the neighborhood was rough, he would wake to find his cannons dragged across the yard, resting against the fence, as they are really too heavy to lift over.
One of my clients, grew up maybe two miles south, as he was growing up, he was admonished to "Stay out of trouble, stay out of King William!" Looking at the sturdy trees and elegant mansions, it 's hard to believe.
Returning troops were frequently filleted in the grand mansions, and Villa Finale itself was, wasnt changed, the King Wilhelm was none too popular. cut up into 8 apartments.
In the ensuing interval, facts are sketchy, but Villa Finale had been a bawdy house, an illicit casino, a speakeasy, and a bordello. Walter Mathis denied the bordello to his dying day, but I heard it from a sweet little old lady in the neighborhood. She was instructed never to walk on that side of the street - her parents were afraid she would be pressed into service.
In the mid-sixties, Mr. Mathis could tell his then current home was in the path of the city 's first big freeway project, 281. He moved his nascent arts and architecture collection into storage and began searching for new home . The & # 39; Villa Finale & # 39; name was chosen because he wanted it to be his last home. It was.
He bought the place in 1967, starting renovations immediately, but he lived downtown in a hotel until part through the project.
The "Fire & Casualty" insurance company one's 1894, Villa Finale had no porch and no tower, while both showed up in the 1905 plat. The porch and tower were added were added added the interim, but not enough data surveys to be more exact. The insurance companies did the plats so there was a map for ingress for the volunteer fire departments, in the event of fire.
The front porch, the Norton entrance is marveled, then guests are instructed to pull on booties, durable yet protective slippers to help preserve what walter Mathis built. The ceiling on the front porch is painted sky blue, and while it is patent folklore, The reason is to keep the mosquitoes away. Allegedly.
There are over 12,000 objects in the collection. For the last few years of his life, a National Historic Trust person acted as a personal curator and carefully mentioned most of the tales associated with the various collections.
On December 8, 1941, Walter Mathis went over to Randolph Army Base and signed up as as pilot. He went on to fly (purported) 96 mission over occupied Europe - WW 2 - facts and myths.
One of the most famous collections. Entering the hallway, then leading to the first door on the right, careful not to touch anything, under the tower, there, is the beginning of the collection.
It's a bad German, "Bechstein-Weltz" reproducing piano It's a wonderful feeling of being in the middle of the front room, under that tower, there is a, forgive my bad German .
"Like a player piano?"
Yes, and no. It is a German machine that looks like piano, has mechanical innards, and ran - runs - on an air compressor that. Mathis located in the basement.
I was a steam-driven piano. The difference is that a great composer or pianist would sit down and record a performance on a roll of paper, and that was played. Caperin, far left, stage left, over in the corner, had scroll and rolls of paper for the piano. Turn of the century iPod. The paper rolls were the mp3s.
Asked what single object he would grab, if the house was on fire, Walter Mathis was proudest of his "genuine" Napoleon death mask. "One of six," is the party line.
It is a historical channel around the cottage industry of Napoleon Death Masks. Worthy of some attention. Seems like there already may more than just half a dozen. It 's worth noting that this was one of the few originals , probably less than a dozen like it - provenance with museum curators is tricky business.
As a military man, Walter Mathis accredited Napoleon & # 39; s tactics. Napoleon was a favorite, and towards that end, Villa Finale is now part of the Franco-Bexar group, as there are more Napoleon memorabilia here than in museums.
The cabinets, the table-tops, the furniture itself, most, if not all, Empire-Revival. French, from around 1840. The "Egyptian" flavor is woven into the art, after all, Napoleon did "conquer" Egypt and some of the Pan-Arab world.
Because I was being restored, I got to see a few things off the wall, like a ceremonial sword and scabbard arrangement that hangs high, like an Xmas tree star, over one set of Napoleon lithographs.
"Sheer panic in the curator" eyes when she folded that one down;
New paint, and everything has been cleaned and replaced in its original pace, per the behest and bequest.
Next room, more Mothers, with one exception, there & # 39; sa green ottoman / footstool that is in the original material from the 1840s. Napoleon collections, mirror over the mantle, odd military objects, a collections of dog figurines, various tokens, souvenirs, and my favorites, a pair of ivory-carved triptychs, which unfold and show Napoleon 's wives and his wife, which shows her greatest accomplishment, marrying Napoleon.
"I hope you find the humor there," I add.
Mark into the hall, along one wall, there are two pictures from the "pasta" school of Italian art, one clearly shows a medieval St. Louis. Mark & # 39; s Square, in Venice. I called it the "pasta" school Because I could never remember the name of the group. In those two paintings, every, there seems to be hundreds, but every figure is busy doing something.
Split between the paintings is a "cranberry glass" fountain, looks like an hourglass, only, with San Antonio & # 39; s hard water, it & # 39; s now all crusted up. The site is waiting on a grant to get this piece preserved. It still has water in it, and supposedly worked until his death.
Turn around, big painting on the wall, "Lazarus and the Money Changers," bible story. The painting sent the part of a year in Austin, getting preserved. Means an expert in Austin spent months cleaning large image with a proverbial Q -tip and jeweler & # 39; s loupe. Before it was restored, I can point to two images, a monkey and a cat, and neither were visible before the conservation.
There are six or seven bronze sculptures int he front hallway, too. Four of them are actual "Barrié," a well-known French "animalieé," excuse my bad French spelling, doing this from memory. Two bronzes at my fingertips. The real barrié, the horse looks like a real horse, while the one next it, it looks like an idealized horse. Turn back around, flanking the fountain are two gold-looking candelabras with stags wrapped around the Center column. More from Barrie. Unusual in that He did a very few candelabras and even few wild animals, like the stags.
The route is a vague figure eight, now, back into the doorway Napoleon parlors, it 'the library.
The wall is lined with books, from from eye level up, the books are fancy, frequently leather-bound, pretty editions of classics. Books that are picked for looks as much as content., From six feet, and under, The books are history, historical, and some auction-house catalogs. To this day, the estate still responding various catalogs from international art houses.
When the house was being renovated by the Historic Trust, Lost chance of damage, then boxing them up, carting them off, bringing them back and re-shelving them, the books were left in place. .
I was there when the fixture was down, to be rewired and brought up to current code, and the electricians, it took three large men, to haul that chandelier back into place. Weighed over 300 pounds.
There 's another series of barrie sculptures, there' s another set of lions flanking the fireplace, and in one corner, I ask, which saint is it?
San Antonio, TX? It's # 39; s Saint Anthony. This is a meter-tall figure that rescued from a church in Mexico, and Mathis turned him into a lamp. Always the preservationist, the saint & # 39; s figure is attached at Over the doorway, leading to the next room, the dining room, now, there is a collection of Eastern Orthodox saints, most with complete silver cladding. I can not tell, do not I recall, if they are Russian Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, or Greek Orthodox. One of them. The sliver cladding was to protect the icons from constant touching, part of that faith.
The floor of the library ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 0 and Eve getting expelled from the garden of Eden.
He never went back. He never went back. He was wired back. He was wired back.
There is a huge amount of silver, two upright wood urns for place settings, as well as three separate chests, full. There is a number of cow- creamers. My name & # 39; s Kramer, cow-Kramers, I like them. All silver.
Sa favorite piece, it 'sa shell - shaped piece' s side, he was related to the Bell Family, the great silver dynasty in San Antonio. Up on one shelf in the dining room there ' of silver with a tiny model of a sailing ship, at the pinnacle. It & # 39; sa gravy boat.
Sybil and the Tarquin, the last of the pagan roman emperors, and she was a seer.
I do not care for my good tastes, and when I pass judgment, keep my tastes in mind. Frequently, I should not be allowed to dress myself.
It is burgundy cut-glass, inlaid with semi-precious gems, gilt gold and silver with camels and lions. The story is, this is the very centerpiece that rode through the Suez Canal, on its opening, with Queen Victoria, in her barge.
Finally, there & # 39; s a selection of painting along one wall, and they include a rare Julian Onerdonck from Williamson County. In his era and to this day, he is still widely regarded as a premier Texas Impressionist painter.
The mirror hanging in the dining room looking like the same frames as in the Napoleon Parlor and sitting rooms. The tale told, passed on to me in training, is that the mirrors were gifts. Mr. Mathis was marching through recently liberated France, and Mathis to was digging around in his pickets, scrapping together a few dollars, to pay for the mirrors, and the mayor begged Mathis to accept them as a gift for freeing their country from Fascist German oppression.
The mirrors showed up in Houston, a few years later, with freight due. Mr. Mathis reluctantly accepted the bill, and he was overjoyed to find his treasures - the people of France remembered him. The last mirror was left un-re-silvered, possibly just for the telling of the tale.
This is from the old Pearl Brewery & # 39; s bar, the Buckhorn Saloon , from 1883. By the sixties, this unusual piece had made its way to Walter Mathis & # 39; s collection. I have it work, more than once. It has two player-violins, and a player piano, all in a single case. Plays a waltz. Either disturbing, musically, or amusing, from a gadget point of view. Wind up and listen to it play a waltz.
From the America, a centuries old school, the combination of the clothing the stairs. The first of the stairs, in the stairwell itself, the downstairs is primarily European while the climbing the stairs. Spanish masters and the local color shows up with the amount of gold gilt used, through. Some strange interpretations, too.
Upstairs ...
Starting in 1910, much of the Catholic church & # 39; s hold on the land was released during revolution, and the relics found there way way here. There was one intern, summer before the Villa Finale opened, all she did was polish the silver that on top of the upstairs piano.
From the hallway, it & # 39; s a left into the periwinkle room. The color is available from Lowe & # 39; s, just ask for & # 39; Villa Finale Periwinkle.
Walter Mathis got his first stick-pin from his grandmother, and that started his life-long obsession with collections and preservation.
Walter Mathis, especially with his huge collection of religious artifacts, was not a church-goer. He res now and his downtown Episcopal Church to historic structure, an old house, historic house, to make way for a parking lot. He resigned and never went to another church. Never looked back, as they say.
There 's an interesting, to me, is the collection of shaving mugs. Started when he was fifteen, the mugs capture the essence of a time gone by. The mugs are displayed in a pair As customary. As ephemeral data points, the mugs are marketing from a day gone by, and the shaving mugs differ from, like, a coffee cup, since there is a little shelf for a bar of soap and the shaving brush.
One of the curators worked at a site in California, talked about the importance of the historical value of the shaving mugs.
There 's a two - step into the Yellow Room. Artwork, a throne, stairs to the tower, and a set of columns, rescued from his home in Monte - Vista. There' s an odd collection of Staffordshire figures, and one is more curious, looks like Ben Franklin but it & # 39; s labeled, "Geo. Washington."
Staffordshire ceramics was probably produced by child labor.
Shaving stands, sewing kits, Walter Mathis bemoaned the fact that he was a Victorian, born a hundred years too late.
Another guide posited the connection - downstairs, Napoleon - upstairs, his illegitimate son - there 's something else that to identical in one in Maximilian.
The master of the house, Walter Mathis, in an intimate humorous display, he had a gold cherub with its chubby little butt pointed toward the center of the room.
The valences, over the windows, when the restorer was working, she was not a plantation in Mississippi. Or near Houston, never got the straight story on that, but they were removed for the new paint, and it turns out, it was a bit of a puzzle to put them back on, as they were different different sizes.
The sketch up on the wall is an Edouard Leon Study of a Mounet (?) - the best part of that? It was a & # 39; lady of substance, & # 39; and that caused quite the scandal. A & # 39; Lady of substance & # 39; was not supposed to pose for a common artist & # 39; s works.
Back into the hall, and it 's painter time. One of the most exquisite paintings is one of the Onerdonk' s Prickly Pear in Bloom.
There is the usual amazing bluebonnet paintings, too. What is painful, What is it? he was a famous for.
There 's one painting, inscribed to Walter Mathis' s mother,' A little friend, to a little friend, in a little friendly way. & # 39;
Passing around the corner is another wooden-press. Flower press? Probably a blanket press, since there 's been a strong tie with Rockport, and the Rockport Quilt Guild.
According to the myth, one or more of his brothers and / / The small bedroom has his parents. It came from St. Louis Louis, down the Mississippi River, where it was wasted on another boat and delivered to Rockport. or sisters was born in that bed.
More interesting, though, is the array of the family tree, mother on the right side, father on the left, tracing back through the generations.
There is a large carved ivory & # 39; china & # 39; boat, # 39; boat, in the front room, visible from the bedroom, has an array of Victorian memorabilia, Bristol Glass, a peacock, beaded purses, antique calling cards and Victorian card clips. and an allegedly working Victrola, hand-crank type of record player.
This is suffered water damage. Like many men of similar vintage, Mr. Mathis insured on doing his own maintenance, and that suffered towards the end. Here is the water damage.
It 's a great sideboard with a glass front. It' s # 39 's & # 39; s & 1904. Another grandmother gift. The collection was embellished when the McNay (museum) asked to display it. Walter collected some, just to make sure the museum had an adequate presentation.
Around the corner is a bathroom - passing a small glass case with another selection of naughty clock faces, slightly & PG & # 39; by modern standards, but risqué by pre-modern mores.
The wallpaper was vinyl, faux-linen, and it peeled off with that water damage During the National Trust 's restoration, a chance encounter yielded up some of the matching wallpaper.
Much of the artwork in his bedroom is from an engraver named & # 39; Currier, & # 39; as in, & # 39; the Mexican-American War (1842 - marched as far as Mexico City).
Walters Mathis was proud of his Texas heritage.
Many of the quilts are Christmas themed, as Walter passed in December, it was his wish that the house be preserved just as he left it.
A four-thousand square foot mansion stuffed with art, the common assumption is that he inherited wealth. His family lost it all in the Great Depression, and Walter Mathis did this on his own. Never married, but he was engaged, at least twice , his biggest win was brokering the Pepsi-Frito Lay deal. Towards That end, his favorite drink was rum and Cherry Pepsi, while he never allowed coke products in the house.
I'm out the bedroom, there 's a sitting room, complete with a kitchenettes installed for him. Almost one wall, there' s selection of Texan currency, bills from the Republic of Texas. there small plaque, designing where the Texas Legate was, 1842-1845.
There are a number of Texas maps along one of the walls, one of which is the western border of the great state of Texas to the the Rio Grande, and that map includes the headwaters of the Rio Grande - all the way to Canada.
T. Gentilz was a surveyor, working for Henri Castro. As such, T. Gentilz would travel between Castroville and San Antonio, taking about three days to complete the journey. He would stop along the way and sketch, draw, paint local color. There are several completed paintings, one that looks incomplete, one art historian ins it the the & queen & # 39; of the San Antonio missions, San Jose.
One local art historian, who knew Walter, who knows what is painting, part of the collection, part of the collection, but to an unrated and untouched eye, the style and execution is so different, I ' suggested that Walter knew it was a fake, but loudly inscribed it was not. Oral tradition versus real provenance.
Included in this flight is a short set of step that lead to some kind of cabinet, or sewing nook. Top of the flight of stairs, there is a collection of circus figures , probably porcelain, and another allegedly working phonograph, the Edison variety with a clearly visible hand-crank and wax cylinder for the recording.
Down the stairs, it & # 39; s a narrow staircase, certainly not ADA-compliant, and potentially dangerous for the loose carpets, there is the most magnificent collection of paintings and prints.
What I was told, Mary Bonner went to Paris to study painting, and one teacher told her that she din '# 39; ve gathered, came from the purchase of the Mary Bonner Estate. t have the strength to be a painter so she should look at print-making instead.
Relying on her native San Antonio background, her prints of cowboys and similar Texas-themes became the toast of France.
They happen. They love Texans. You do know, Texas is bigger than France?
The Mary Bonner collection, alone it it back stairwell is enough to render the whole trip worthwhile.
There are several sketches of the missions, again, later Mary Bonner works.
This stairs unwind into the kitchen. This was a working kitchen. Rumor has it, the refrigerator still has frozen foods, left over from before the Historic Trust took over.
Now on the wall. There's a lot of flatware, cookware, Wedge Wood, and China. The story is, one plate was used for serving until Walter Mathis found out on the platter. Now on the wall.
The woodwork itself was rescued and repurposed from the Sullivan House, another casualty in San Antonio & # 39; s growth.
The shuttered cupboard, now and office, held the unattractive spices. There are jars of pasta and candy , sweets and so forth, and they have not been changed, at least not yet. Probably will not be touched, looks fine, sees preserved.
The chandelier in the kitchen, kind of a hideous pastiche of glazed, colored glass, wood and brass? Walter Mathis had taken it to a consignment shop, and some guy offered him $ 500, on the spot, for the chandelier. When qualified why, Walter was going to sell it for $ 50, these are 1969 Dollars, so that was a great deal of money, then the prospective buyer pointed out that the lamp, chandelier, was signed by Tiffany. A real Tiffany Lamp.
(Provenance on this is suspect, too. Very suspect.)
It now hangs high overhead in the kitchen.
Adjacent to the kitchen is the Butler & # 39; s Pantry, with a full wet-bar, the wood work more of the rescued cabinetry.
Finally, the Pewter Room. At this point, I & # 39; m out of energy, having talked for the better part of 45 minutes or so, and quite tired. Pewter Room. Lots of pewter on the shelf, beer steins, and the Rhine Maiden.
Another gloriously hideous chandelier, actually, an antique Bier Garten. Candelabra, from the old country. Came from a German Saloon with German immigrants, sometimes a little before the Villa Finale was built. Ring of the Valkyries? Yes, that kind of Rhine Maiden, cf., Wagner & # 39; s Ring Cycle, first and She was supposed to guard the gold in the Rhine.
The other bizarre piece. A threesome. Kind of hard to tell, but looks like two naked women intertwined with a single topless guy. Story was, he bought this as a tabletop lamp, and at close to five or six feet tall, it does not really set well on a tabletop, but that & # 39; s what it is now.
It is easy to see, while getting off the booties, where the new stuff has been added.
Unbalanced. Gambling operations, bawdy house, speakeasy, all by reputation, but not substantiating facts support the one of the owners, owned the casino when it was was n downtown San Antonio, and when the prohibition hit, allegations.
It is a small house and a big house and there is a small house and a big house. It is onsite office for some, plus a bathroom and lockers for over-sized purses.
Mr. Mathis, as a civic leader and patron of the arts, fosted city hall - and won. Look a the aerial plat, and the river & # 39; s course bends around his property.
There are three friezes, set in the southern wall, borders the property. Same artist as the Cenotaph for the Alamo, downtown.
The tour concludes in the wrought-iron gazebo, cupola. Walter & # 39; s niece was married there, in the spring of 1970, and the hose has been, like a museum, ever since.
Family members have toured Villa Finale, and the most common comment, "Wow, just like he left it, except now, everything is so clean ...."
