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King William, San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio's German merchant district on the river: limestone mansions and stone cottages on the same shaded streets just south of downtown, a flour mill still working at the neighborhood's edge, and a comeback that began in 1967 when one preservationist bought a subdivided boarding house and started buying the street back, house by house.

Wildcard Angle: Historic comeback, grand homes Price band: Premium Data checked October 23, 2026
The Edward Steves Homestead, a three story limestone mansion with a mansard roof and iron cresting, at 509 King William Street in San Antonio
The Edward Steves Homestead at 509 King William, built 1876 for lumber baron Edward Steves. A San Antonio Conservation Society museum from 1954, the house was sold in 2022 and is a private home again. Photo by Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

At a Glance

Affordability 3.5/10 Median sale price, King William$562,500Houzeo, from MLS data, February 2026, on 7 homes sold 1 year price changeUp 0.28% year over yearHouzeo, from MLS data, February 2026 Average rent, one bedroom, within 1 mile of King William, 98 rentals$1,349 per monthApartmentHomeLiving, prices updated October 22, 2026 Median sale price, last 12 months, King William$479,500, up 52%, on 10 salesHomes.com local guide, October 2026 A small district with only a handful of sales a year, most of them grand houses, so the headline number swings with whichever big house closed last. The stone cottages set the floor, the mansions set the ceiling, and there is little in between.
Walkability 8.5/10 Walk Score, King William neighborhood82 out of 100Walk Score via Homes.com Transit Score, King William neighborhood48 out of 100Walk Score via Homes.com Bike Score, King William neighborhood90 out of 100Walk Score via Homes.com Quiet residential streets inside the district, with daily life running along the River Walk at its west edge and into Southtown. One of the strongest walking districts in the city, and a place where the bike matters more than the bus.
Housing Variety 6/10 Housing stock, King William385 homes, median year built 1920, average single-family home 1,836 square feetHomes.com local guide, October 2026 The variety is architectural: Greek Revival, Italianate, and Victorian houses beside stone cottages, carriage houses, and casitas, with a few townhouses and lofts at the edges. What holds the score down is supply. The district is small, protected, and nearly fully built, so choice comes from waiting.
Daily Life 8.5/10 A landmark restaurant and museum inside the district, the River Walk along its west edge, and Southtown's galleries at its shoulder. The King William Fair gives it one big weekend a year; the rest of the year it is porch streets, pecan shade, and a river trail for the morning round, a short walk from the downtown core.
Commute 9/10 Distance to downtown San AntonioAbout 2 milesHomes.com King William local guide, October 2026 The Alamo and the northern downtown edgeAbout 1 mile from the northern edge of King WilliamHomes.com King William local guide, October 2026 Downtown sits at the district's northern shoulder, the River Walk runs straight into the core for walkers and bikes, and the freeways are a few minutes out for drivers. For a downtown job, the daily trip is a bike ride or a short bus ride up South St. Mary's.

Texas cost notes. Texas levies no state income tax, and property tax carries the load instead. For tax year 2026 the City of San Antonio rate is 0.56288 per $100 of taxable value (City of San Antonio historical tax rate table; the tax year 2025 rate was 0.54159), and the Bexar County total is 0.299999 per $100 (Bexar County fiscal 2025 to 26 adopted budget). A King William home also pays the San Antonio Independent School District, the hospital district, Alamo Colleges and the river authority, and combined bills inside the city typically land around 1.9 to 2.5 percent of value depending on the school district: at the $562,500 median that range runs about $10,700 to $14,100 a year before exemptions. The exemptions are real money: a homestead caps taxable appraisal growth at 10 percent a year, the school homestead exemption stands at $140,000 from tax year 2025, and homeowners who are 65 or older or disabled shield an extra $60,000 from school taxes. One more budget line is local: Homes.com's King William guide flags flood exposure from the San Antonio River, so a flood risk review and a flood insurance quote belong in the purchase math for river adjacent streets. Exterior changes in the district also go through historic review.

Map of King William, San Antonio in context, with a pin on the neighborhood just south of downtown San Antonio
King William in context, pin on the neighborhood, with downtown San Antonio about two miles north. Map: Esri, HERE, Garmin, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS user community.

The Story

King William began as someone else's farmland. The blocks south of downtown were the labor de abajo, the lower labor, of Mission San Antonio de Valero, the mission the city knows as the Alamo. When the mission was secularized in 1793, that lower farmland was divided into equal tracts for fourteen Indian families in the vicinity. Streets followed between 1853 and 1859, including the street that still gives the neighborhood its name.

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Ernst Hermann Altgelt moved to San Antonio in 1866. According to some sources, he built the first house on King William Street in 1867 and was accorded the privilege of naming it, allegedly for Wilhelm I, King of Prussia. The rest of San Antonio had a homelier name for the river bend filling with German households: Sauerkraut Bend. After the Civil War, the city's German business elite built here, the Groos, Joske, Kalteyer and Steves families among them. Carl Hilmar Guenther bought his river mill site in 1859 and built his stone house beside the mill that became Pioneer Flour Mills. Anton Wulff, a merchant who became the city's first parks commissioner, raised his Italianate limestone house at the entrance to the street in 1869 and 1870. Edward Steves built his limestone mansion at 509 King William in 1876. Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire and later Victorian houses rose under pecan and cypress shade.

Fashion moved on. During World War I the street was renamed Pershing Avenue, and the name was restored only after the war. The original families began leaving in the 1920s, and the flood of 1921 pushed more of them away from the river. After World War II, many of the grand houses fell into disrepair and were divided into apartments in a housing shortage.

The comeback was personal before it was official. In 1967 Walter Nold Mathis, forced to move when his own house in a nearby historic neighborhood was scheduled to be razed for a highway project, bought a subdivided boarding house at 401 King William. He spent nearly two years restoring it and named it Villa Finale, because it would be his last home. Then he bought and partly restored up to fourteen other King William properties and sold them to preservation minded buyers. The King William Association was chartered the same year. The city designated King William its first historic district in 1968, and the National Register listed it on January 20, 1972. Mathis gave Villa Finale to the National Trust in 2004, and it opened as a museum in 2010.

Villa Finale, the Norton-Polk-Mathis House at 401 King William Street in San Antonio, seen from its garden
Villa Finale, the Norton-Polk-Mathis House at 401 King William, from its garden. Photo by Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Timeline

  • 1793: Mission San Antonio de Valero is secularized; its lower farmland, the labor de abajo, is divided into equal tracts for fourteen Indian families, forming the southern part of the future district.
  • 1853 to 1859: Streets are laid out, including King William Street, and the area is annexed by San Antonio.
  • 1859: Carl Hilmar Guenther purchases the river mill site Pioneer Flour Mills still occupies; his stone house beside it is dated 1859 by the City of San Antonio and 1860 by the King William Association house history.
  • 1866 to 1867: Ernst Hermann Altgelt moves to San Antonio in 1866; according to some sources he builds the first house on King William Street in 1867 and is accorded the naming of the street, allegedly for Wilhelm I of Prussia.
  • 1869 to 1870: Anton Wulff builds his Italianate limestone house at 107 King William, at the entrance to the street, on land from the 1793 Pedro Huizar grant.
  • 1876: Edward Steves builds his ashlar limestone mansion at 509 King William; the same year, hardware merchant Russel C. Norton completes the one story house that will become Villa Finale at 401 King William.
  • 1877 to 1878: Altgelt builds a more elaborate second home at 226 King William; he dies on March 28, 1878.
  • World War I years: King William Street is renamed Pershing Avenue amid anti German sentiment; the name is restored after the war.
  • 1921: A devastating flood strikes San Antonio; the German families' departure from the river bend accelerates, and a flood control diversion about 1926 moves the river away from houses such as the Wulff House.
  • 1920s to post World War II: Original German families begin moving out in the 1920s; after World War II many houses fall into disrepair and are divided into apartments because of the housing shortage.
  • 1952 to 1954: Edna Steves Vaughan, Edward Steves's granddaughter, deeds the Steves Homestead to the San Antonio Conservation Society in 1952; it opens as a house museum in 1954.
  • 1967: The King William Association is chartered, and Walter Nold Mathis buys the boarding house at 401 King William and begins its two year restoration as Villa Finale; the city passes the historic zoning ordinance authorizing historic districts.
  • 1968: San Antonio designates King William a historic district, the city's first; the Association hosts the first King William Fair as a one block arts exhibit.
  • January 20, 1972: The King William Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, reference 72001349.
  • 1974 to 1975: The Conservation Society buys the demolition threatened Wulff House in June 1974 in a campaign led by Mathis, restores it by the fall of 1975, and moves its headquarters in.
  • 1984 to 1988: The district is expanded in 1984 to include the more modest homes between South Alamo and South St. Mary's Streets; the River Walk is completed south through King William in the 1980s.
  • 2004 to 2010: Mathis donates Villa Finale to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2004 and dies in 2005; after restoration it opens as a museum in 2010, the only National Trust Historic Site in Texas.
  • 2013 and 2022: The Mission Reach is completed in 2013, its trailhead just south of King William; in 2022 the Conservation Society Foundation votes to sell the Steves Homestead, ending its museum years and returning it to private use.

What It Actually Feels Like

Mornings start on the river. The King William reach of the River Walk is the quiet stretch, shaded and local, where the walkers and runners have the path to themselves before downtown wakes up two miles north. On the streets, the scale changes block by block: a limestone mansion with a mansard roof, then a one story stone cottage behind a picket fence, then a carriage house turned home. Porches are deep, and the Guenther House patio fills at lunch with people eating beside a working flour mill. Evenings belong to Southtown at the edges, while the district itself goes quiet early. It feels like living inside a landmark that never stopped being a neighborhood, which is exactly the tension every buyer here signs up for.

The Guenther House on East Guenther Street in King William, San Antonio, in dappled shade
The Guenther House on East Guenther, beside Pioneer Flour Mills. Photo by Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • The landmark loop is the street itself: 79 historic structures across about 22 blocks (Texas State Historical Association), from the Wulff House at the entrance to Villa Finale, the only National Trust Historic Site in Texas.
  • Protection with a paper trail: San Antonio's first historic district (1968) and a National Register listing in 1972, so the streetscape a buyer falls for is the streetscape the rules defend.
  • Two miles from downtown, with the Alamo about a mile from its northern edge, a Walk Score of 82 and a Bike Score of 90 (Walk Score via Homes.com).
  • A working landmark for daily life: the Guenther House restaurant and museum and Pioneer Flour Mills at the neighborhood's edge, plus the Mission Reach trailhead just south for an 8 mile river trail.
  • A real price ladder underneath the mansions: verified active listings on October 23, 2026 ran from a $462,000 cottage listed that same day to a $1,995,000 Queen Anne, under a February 2026 median sale of $562,500 (Houzeo).

Cons

  • No median here is sturdy: about ten sales a year in the district means Houzeo counts $562,500 for February 2026 on 7 sales while Homes.com counts $479,500 and $425,000 on its two pages and Redfin's only figure dates to October 2024. Price any single house on its own comparables, not on a headline.
  • Historic review is a standing cost: exterior changes in the district go through the city's historic process, and the stock is 140 plus years old, with limestone, old roofs and old systems.
  • Texas property tax is the mortgage's second payment: combined bills inside San Antonio typically land around 1.9 to 2.5 percent of value, about $10,700 to $14,100 a year at the median before homestead exemptions, and river adjacent streets add flood insurance to the math.
  • Transit is thin: a Transit Score of 48 on bus based service, so a second car free life here runs on walking and biking, not on VIA.
  • The grandest landmark is private again: the Steves Homestead's museum years ended with its 2022 sale, so the mansion at 509 King William is a house to admire from the sidewalk, and the district's tourable landmark is Villa Finale.

Housing in Detail

Entry: the stone cottages on the district's side streets, where a 1927 brick and stone cottage at 502 Adams Street listed new at $462,000 on October 23, 2026, sold as is in an estate sale, and where Homes.com's local guide counts a median two bedroom sale of $334,961 over the last 12 months. Mid: the larger historic houses and the Southtown edge, where a 1916 five bedroom house with a detached casita at 619 Cedar Street listed at $799,000 and a 2017 build just west of the district at 203 Nogalitos listed at $599,500. Top: King William Street itself and the double lots, where a Victorian at 617 East Guenther Street listed at $1,100,000 with a detached finished apartment, the median asking price on Homes.com's local guide stands at $632,000, and a Queen Anne at 402 Madison listed at $1,995,000 after a $205,000 price change. Renting is the district's other half: Homes.com's main page counts 61.3 percent of residents renting, at an average one bedroom rent of $1,349 a month within a mile of the neighborhood (ApartmentHomeLiving, October 22, 2026).

Daily Life

The Guenther House is the neighborhood restaurant, inside Carl Hilmar Guenther's own house beside Pioneer Flour Mills. The River Walk's King William reach is the morning and evening round, and the Mission Reach trailhead just south turns a bike ride into an 8 mile run past the missions. Southtown carries the rest: the Blue Star Arts Complex, galleries and restaurants along South Alamo and South Flores, and downtown two miles north. The calendar peaks once a year, when the King William Fair closes Fiesta week on its final Saturday, a tradition the Association started as a one block arts exhibit in 1968.

Best For / Think Twice If

Best for: historic-home lovers who want the grandest residential street in San Antonio and will trade modern systems for limestone and provenance; downtown workers who want a two mile commute they can walk or bike along the river; preservation minded buyers who see historic review as protection for their own investment; anyone who wants a quiet, shaded district with a river trail at its edge instead of a main street through its middle.

Think twice if: your budget needs a family size house under $450,000 inside the district lines, because the verified floor on October 23, 2026 was a $462,000 one bath cottage sold as is; you want to renovate freely, because exterior work answers to historic review; the Texas property tax load at 1.9 to 2.5 percent of value breaks the monthly math; you need strong transit, because the score is 48 and the car free life here is a walking and biking life; your street sits beside the river, because the flood review belongs in the purchase math.

Top Properties Right Now

$462,000

502 Adams Street, San Antonio

3 bed | 1 bath | 1,464 square feet | Single-family cottage, built 1927

The verified entry point inside the district, listed new on the day this report published: a one story brick and stone cottage offered as an estate sale, as is, for the first time in over 60 years per its listing description. The one bath count is the honest limit.

Listing verified on a brokerage MLS IDX page (Realty United, LERA MLS), October 23, 2026. View listing

$599,500

203 Nogalitos, San Antonio

3 bed | 2.5 bath | 1,823 square feet | Single-family home, built 2017

The Redfin verified card and the modern counterpoint, just west of the district at the Southtown edge near Blue Star: a 2017 build with $29 a month in HOA dues, listed October 22, 2026 and still reading new on Redfin a day later. This listing sits at the neighborhood's edge, not inside the historic district.

Listing verified on Redfin, October 23, 2026. View on Redfin

$799,000

619 Cedar Street, San Antonio

5 bed | 4 bath | 2,346 square feet | Single-family home, built 1916

The family size historic card inside the district: a furnished two story house with a detached 374 square foot casita counted separately from the main house figure, 42 days on market.

Listing verified on a brokerage MLS IDX page (Realty United, LERA MLS), October 23, 2026. View listing

$1,100,000

617 East Guenther Street, San Antonio

3 bed | 3 bath | 2,720 square feet | Single-family Victorian, built 1915

The double lot card: a two story Victorian on a double lot with a detached 1,260 square foot finished apartment, 28 days on market; the square foot figure comes from the listing's brokerage brochure.

Listing verified on a brokerage MLS IDX page (Realty United, LERA MLS), October 23, 2026. View listing

$1,995,000

402 Madison, San Antonio

3 bed plus casita bedroom | 2 bath plus casita bath | 3,837 square feet | Single-family Queen Anne Victorian, built 1885

The top of the current market: a corner lot Victorian with a pool, spa, outdoor kitchen and garage casita, 133 days on market after a $205,000 price change.

Listing verified on Redfin, October 23, 2026. View on Redfin

Nearby Alternatives

  • Lavaca: east across South Alamo, the city's other early streetcar era neighborhood, with smaller cottages, its own historic district, and the verified edge of this week's market at $410,000 for a 1922 house on Panama Avenue.
  • Southtown and South St. Mary's: west and north of the district, newer builds and arts corridor living at prices like the $599,500 Nogalitos listing, without historic review.
  • Monte Vista: north of downtown, San Antonio's other grand historic district, larger lots and 1920s revival houses at a similar premium.
  • Alamo Heights: the established premium suburb northeast of downtown, with its own schools and a more conventional luxury market.

Sources

Data as of the dates shown above. Refresh due within 90 days for listings and 6 months for market data.

  • Houzeo, King William housing market, February 2026, from MLS data: median sale price $562,500, up 0.28% year over year, 7 homes sold, median 100 days on market, sale to list 91.32%: houzeo.com
  • Homes.com, King William local guide, October 2026: median sale price $479,500, up 52%, last 12 months, on 10 sales; median list price $632,000; median single-family sale price $627,500; median two bedroom sale price $334,961; 385 homes; median year built 1920; average single-family home 1,836 square feet; Walk Score 82, Transit Score 48, Bike Score 90; downtown about 2 miles; flood exposure note: homes.com
  • Homes.com, King William neighborhood page, October 2026: median sale price $425,000, up 27%, last 12 months, on 9 sales; median list price $691,000; 61.3% of residents renting: homes.com
  • Redfin, San Antonio neighborhood guide, King William: median sale price $426,250, from Redfin Data Center data for October 2024, published November 1, 2024. Cited as a stale figure, not used as the headline: redfin.com
  • ApartmentHomeLiving, King William apartments: average one bedroom rent $1,349 per month, 98 rentals within a 1 mile radius, prices updated October 22, 2026; companion averages on the same pages, studio $1,198 and two bedroom $2,075: apartmenthomeliving.com
  • City of San Antonio, historical city property tax rates: tax year 2026 city rate 0.56288 per $100 of taxable value, tax year 2025 rate 0.54159: sanantonio.gov
  • Bexar County, fiscal 2025 to 26 adopted annual budget: county property tax rate 0.299999 per $100 of taxable value: bexar.org
  • Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, King William Historic District: the labor de abajo of Mission San Antonio de Valero, the 1793 division, streets laid out 1853 to 1859, the German business families, 22 blocks and 79 historic structures, the Pershing Avenue renaming, the postwar decline: tshaonline.org
  • Texas State Historical Association, Ernst Hermann Altgelt: the 1866 move, the 1867 first house and the hedged street naming, the 226 King William house and his 1878 death: tshaonline.org
  • Texas State Historical Association, Anton Wulff House: the 1869 to 1870 Italianate house, the 1793 Pedro Huizar grant, the Conservation Society purchase in 1974 and restoration in 1975: tshaonline.org
  • Texas State Historical Association, Pioneer Flour Mills: Carl Hilmar Guenther's 1859 mill site purchase and the mill's history: tshaonline.org
  • King William Association, Historic Districts: the 1968 city recognition as a residential historic district and the Altgelt naming credit: ourkwa.org
  • King William Fair, Who We Are: the Association chartered in 1967 and the first Fair in 1968, growing from a one block arts exhibit to a Fiesta event on the final Saturday of Fiesta week: kwfair.org
  • San Antonio Conservation Society, Society Properties: the Wulff House headquarters and restoration; and the Society's disposition of motions, June 15, 2022, voting to sell the Steves Homestead at 509 King William: saconservation.org
  • City of San Antonio, Office of Historic Preservation, Guide to San Antonio's Historic Resources: King William as the city's first historic district, 1968; and Mission Trails, Guenther House, constructed in 1859 and modified in 1915: sanantonio.gov
  • Texas Architect, Preserving a Place for the Living, September 4, 2024: the 1967 historic zoning ordinance and the city's first preservation officer in 1968: texasarchitects.org
  • The Cultural Landscape Foundation, King William Historic District and Villa Finale: the district's 65 acres, the Norton-Polk-Mathis House built in 1876, Mathis's 1967 purchase, the 2004 National Trust donation and the 2010 museum opening: tclf.org
  • National Trust for Historic Preservation, Villa Finale, and the Texas Historical Commission, Villa Finale as the only National Trust Historic Site in Texas: savingplaces.org
  • Listings verified October 23, 2026: 502 Adams Street, 619 Cedar Street and 617 East Guenther Street (brokerage MLS IDX, Realty United, LERA MLS) and 203 Nogalitos and 402 Madison (Redfin).
  • Larry D. Moore, Edward Steves Homestead (hero photograph), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0: commons.wikimedia.org
  • Larry D. Moore, Villa Finale, Norton-Polk-Mathis House (story photograph), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0: commons.wikimedia.org
  • Larry D. Moore, Carl Guenther House (photograph), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0: commons.wikimedia.org
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