Nothing beats a walk in a beautiful neighborhood on a warm weekend after several days of cold weather. Add children visiting from out of town, and it's a darn near perfect activity.
The neighborhood in question is
King William, an almost surrealistically gorgeous little enclave of Victorian mansions just south of downtown. Our major target there last weekend was the very handsome structure pictured above.
It's the
Villa Finale, formerly owned by Walter Mathis, one of the prime revitalizers of this amazing area. We have not only those efforts to thank him for, but also for the fact that he set up his house, along with his extensive and eccentric collection of art, artifacts, knick-knacks, and otherwise delightful doo-dads, to be a public museum. It has the distinction of being the only
National Historic Trust site in all of Texas.
The kids weren't up to an inside tour on such a nice day (although I hope on a future visit to do the full walk-through), so we contented ourselves with strolling through the handsome gardens and grounds. Here are some of the items that caught my blogger's eye during our walk:
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| the house is well-defended! |
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| a plain stone wall just wouldn't do, would it? |
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| one of a couple of pet cats... |
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| "roof" of the gazebo, augmented by winter trees |
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| an appropriately fancy car for such a fancy house, no? |
Mr. Mathis' house, of course, isn't the only one worth ogling in King William. Here are a few more that we strolled by...
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| Steves "Homestead," which you can also tour |
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| we know the folks who used to live here; the inside is just as marvelous as the outside! |
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| I love the two-story porches on this King William house |
Fantasizing about living in houses like these, enjoying them as works of art, or just soaking up the warm air...a perfect weekend activity.
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