Historic Drought House at Providence goes 'back to the future'

Carol Baass Sowa
Today's Catholic

A view of the 1901 house, in the process of renovation, with the old Molino Blanco grindstone displayed in the foreground.
Carol Baass Sowa | Today's Catholic

SAN ANTONIO • History is stirring on the grounds of Providence Catholic School — history from centuries past and history being made. And situated at the center of this is a proud old home, the Drought House, poised to enter a third exciting chapter in its more than 100 years of existence.

Built in 1901, the three-story mansion that began a second life as a Congregation of Divine Providence convent in 1951, is presently being carefully restored by them to its original glory to serve as a new campus center and library for Providence’s sixth through 12th grades, one that will be available to San Antonians for community functions as well.

The house’s past and future is not the only history interwoven with the property at North St. Mary’s and Brooklyn streets, however.

The land itself could tell many a tale of Texas’ early days — days when the San Antonio River coursed through it, wide and strong, with water crystal clear, making it prime land for early settlers. (A 20th century straightening for flood control would later relocate the river a block or so away.)

In mid-18th century, the Spanish crown offered land stretching north along the river to any residents willing to stake a claim to it. This included the land upon which Providence and the Drought House now stand.

Eventually, a grist mill known as Molino Blanco (the white mill) came to be built on the site to take advantage of the flowing river. Its grindstone was later preserved by the Drought family whose house is said to have been partially built on the old mill’s foundation. The mill’s worn stone, placed in table-top fashion on a pedestal of honeycomb rock, can still be seen on the Providence campus in front of the Drought House.

From its early Spanish ownership, the land would change hands several times over the decades and centuries that followed, becoming a part of independent Mexico after that country’s revolt from Spain and later the young Texas, after it won independence from Mexico.

In the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 5, 1835, the Molino Blanco was the site where Ben Milam gathered the 300 volunteers who had responded to his impassioned plea: “Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?” On Dec. 7, while leading them in hand-to-hand combat to retake the town from the Mexican Army, he would be killed by a sniper near the Veramendi house.
Members of two families, the Droughts and the Tunstalls, found their way to Texas in the latter part of the 19th century.

Thomas Drought, a British artillery regiment officer from County Clare in Ireland, immigrated to Canada in 1870 and raised a family, with one of his sons, Henry Patrick, coming to reside in San Antonio for health reasons as most of the family had died from tuberculosis.

With a law degree from the University of Toronto, Henry Patrick opened a law practice in San Antonio, eventually acquiring a mortgage banking business here in 1884 and changing its name to H.P. Drought and Company.

Meanwhile, Warwick Tunstall, a Virginia attorney, and Florida Hall Boswell, originally from Kentucky, had wed. The Tunstalls lived for a time in New Orleans before arriving in San Antonio via the port of Indianola in 1854 and purchasing a long strip of land along the San Antonio River around what is now Ninth Street.

Here they built a large and most unusual two-story house on land sloping toward the river — unusual in that all its rooms were octagon-shaped. A period sketch of it hangs today in the office of their great-grandson, attorney Tom Drought, whose grandmother Ethel was born within its octagonal walls.
When Henry Patrick Drought wed Ethel Tunstall, her parents presented the young couple with several acres of their land along the San Antonio River on which to build a home.

On this property were the ruins of the old mill, Molino Blanco, where Ethel had played as child. The house, located on Oakland Street (later renamed St. Mary’s) was described as their “pride and joy” and designed by the architectural firm of Coughlin & Ayres — Ayres being notable architect Atlee B. Ayres.

Accounts tell of the use of Louisiana pine and sycamore for the first floor woodwork in the 12-room mansion, which featured an ornate fireplace in every room, each framed by a different carved wood mantelpiece, inset with mirrors and with tile ornamentation from as far away as France, Germany and Italy. The center tile adorning the dining room fireplace bears an Arabic inscription which has been translated as “God bless this house.”

The first floor, in addition to a large entry or reception hall, contained two front parlors, the family living room, a kitchen featuring a dumbwaiter and a dining room with a raftered ceiling and a built-in china cabinet that wrapped around the imposing fireplace. Wide, curtained doorways off the entry hall (with 12-foot pocket doors added) made possible a grand ballroom for parties 62 to 75 feet across. The second floor featured a master bedroom suite and four other bedrooms, while the third floor attic was used for storage.

A porte cochere attached to the side porch offered protection when boarding the family’s carriage, drawn by a matched team of black or bay horses. The stables were located where the school now stands and, in later years, became the garage for the Droughts’ automobiles, including Ethel’s early Franklin limousine.

Various other changes were made to the house by the Droughts over the years. Tiers of wall brackets matching the room’s other wood embellishments were added in the dining room to display decorative plates. The large squared-off porches on the front and south side of the house, originally with wood railings, were converted in later years into a large wrap-around porch trimmed with the decorative brick railings seen on the house today.

The parlor in the home’s northwest corner was extended in 1927 to serve as a spacious art gallery for Ethel Drought, graced by two pianos for entertaining. (This extension no longer exists, being removed at an unrecorded later point in the home’s history.)

One of the more exciting renovation moments occurred when the Droughts installed a new heating system in 1924 and a portion of the old Molino Blanco millrace was revealed during excavation north of the kitchen door.

More memorable moments lay in store for the old house, as we will see when we continue the story of Providence’s Drought House in our next issue.

Future installments in this continuing series on the Drought House will cover the remarkable Ethel Tunstall Drought, the home’s 1950 purchase for use as a convent by the Congregation of Divine Providence for their new Providence High School, and the exciting current restoration and plans for the house and school.