Laguna Gloria

Clara Driscoll was the scion of the Corpus Christi Driscolls, a young woman made wealthy from the cattle and oil industries in which her father and brother were involved. She had traveled to Europe for her post graduate studies, and fell in love with the Italian-villa style of home construction. After she was married (in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral), she had some river-front land purchased in Austin, and a grand villa constructed in the style she liked. Nowadays, the villa is considered rather modest, especially for money showing itself off.

It exists today as a museum and gallery in Austin, as Clara had hoped. She purchased many Italian sculptures while travelling, and had them on display here. Currently there are a few modern and post-modern sculptures on the grounds sharing space, as well as some contemporary paintings inside the villa.

Because Clara was so afraid of fire destroying her Italian dream house, she had the entire thing made out of concrete in 1916. One claim to fame for Clara Driscoll is that she saved the Alamo.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many states were not in the business of saving historic places for posterity; some didn't have the financial resources, others didn't have the historical verification. Clara, though, with both grandfathers fighting at the Battle of San Jacinto--a major battle in the Texas' independence war--was brought up a proud Texan and knowledgable of Texas history. She purchased the Alalmo--the surrounding land and the dilapidated building, and held on until the state was ready to purchase it back, and preserve it as a landmark.

Not everything at Laguna Gloria is made of concrete. Here is a cool gazebo. It plays prominently in the many weddings that are held on the grounds annually; another stream of revenue for the site.

There are a few hand-crafted wooden benches placed around the grounds, some, like the following one, are placed so those seated can look out over the water. Overgrowth has blocked most of the view today. Also, the damming of the Colorado River to make Lake Austin caused about a third of Clara's property to be swallowed up by water, so the shoreline might have been farther from this spot anyway.

On the grounds there are plenty of palmettos, and I was even inspired to call a series of pictures "Winter in Thailand". This picture is pretty neat, I think, because you can see a physical manifestation of the wind, as in the ground having been swept by the palmetto frond.
Here is one of the many sculptures on the Laguna Gloria grounds. I was thinking of having a post devoted just to the sculptures, and I might still do it, but the thought of waiting for all nineteen or so pictures to load is enough to give me severe agita. This gal lives in the rose garden.