San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
‘Ultramodern’ subdivision forecast the future
I enjoy reading your columns and wonder if you could assist us. We are the Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association, and our neighborhood Harmony Hills is celebrating 60 years as a community.
We have plat evidence that tells us the first houses went up in 1959 by the Zachry Co. with over 13 builders including Uptmore Homes and Lloyd Booth. Many of these builders are deceased or in their 90s, and the stories of their builds or Parade of Homes or the style of houses are sketchy. Could you assist us in more history of who we are?
We are pulling facts together and would like some humaninterest stories for our Sept. 23 birthday celebration.
— Patty Gibbons, president,
Greater Harmony Hills Neighborhood Association
The first residents of Harmony Hills were practically the Jetsons. No, they didn’t have robot maids or flying cars, but they were offered many amenities that became standard in late 20th-century homes.
The first houses in the neighborhood, mostly built during its first five years, were very different from the ones in which those first homeowners grew up and could almost have been planned in reaction to them. And what were considered fresh, modern touches — then “affordable luxury” — were soon taken for granted even in relatively modest apartments.
Harmony Hills was announced in the San Antonio Express, March 15, 1959, as a development of 478 acres acquired by the H.B. Zachry Co. The land straddled San Pedro Avenue, with 50 acres to the east to be developed later. The lots were to be sold directly to builders; Zachry won the contracts for city water, lights, gas and sewers and would build the streets.
About 20 builders at that time had purchased land; 16 had signed up for an ambitious goal — to have model homes ready for the third annual Parade of Homes scheduled for Sept. 3-14, 1959. Sponsored by the San
Antonio Home Builders Association,
the event that year showcased five subdivisions off Loop 13 (later 410). Harmony Hills was the newest; the others were Castle Park Unit 3, Colonial Hills, Dreamland Oaks and Lackland City. Loopland was the future — bigger houses, longer commutes and near-mandatory car travel.
At just six-tenths of a mile north of the Loop, Harmony
Hills was promoted as “ideal” for active-duty military or civilian staff at Fort Sam Houston and Randolph AFB. The first homeowners bought the pitch: Homer A. Napier was a civilian employee in personnel at Fort Sam and his wife, Martha, taught at Garner Junior High School. Their two children, Albert and Margaret, were students at MacArthur High School. When they first saw the neighborhood, “our only neighbors were birds, rabbits and rattlesnakes,” Mrs. Napier told the Express for a fifth anniversary story, Aug. 15, 1964. “There just wasn’t anything here.” They took possession of 235 Serenade Drive on Aug. 20, 1959, three days before even the Parade preview houses were supposed to be ready. The gas line wasn’t;
they had to heat water in an electric kettle for washing and shaving for a few days.
While the first family of Harmony Hills went off to work and school, construction kicked into high gear. Zachry sold hundreds of lots to an eventual total of 24 local builders, who needed to recoup their costs by selling houses. The Parade of Homes was an open-house event that allowed serious buyers and looky-loos alike to visit the model homes (usually including a builder’s sales office) for 25 cents per subdivision or 50 cents for all. After that, someone — usually a “hostess” — would have to be at the models from 2-10 p.m. a couple of weeknights and all day on weekends.
The first streets with finished houses were on Serenade, Tammy and Patricia, in that order.
Those model homes were dressed to sell. Harmony Hills was often advertised as “the ultramodern subdivision,” so the builders’ show homes, built on spec, were filled with modern conveniences and decorated by furniture stores and interiordesign firms. The average price for the Parade houses was
$15,000 to $20,000 (when the national average was $12,400), fully loaded with central airconditioning, built-in furniture and TV sets, dishwashers, garbage disposals, glass shower stalls, terrazzo tile and parquet flooring, mahogany paneling and scenic wallpaper.
Buyers could pay with GI (no money down), FHA (low down payment) or conventional loans, and payments could be as low as $120 a month. That price probably would require them to pass up the extras, start with a bare lot marked by sticks and string and resist upselling.
Most houses in the neighborhood — the range was
$13,500 to $25,000 — measured at least 2,000 square feet; three bedrooms, two baths and a family room were typical, although some builders offered four- or two-bedroom plans and living/dining-room combinations. All had attached two-car garages, the better to take advantage of the wide (42-foot) streets, curved to slow down traffic and planned to get everyone out to the access streets efficiently.
Most were ranch-type houses, built on one floor, with no porches but a sliding glass door to the patio in the back. Décor touches and trim gave them Early American Colonial style or “Oriental”/Polynesian with a covered lanai instead of a patio. There was a 50 percent masonry requirement, and some were all masonry — red or painted white brick, off-white Austin cut stone, pink or yellow native stone. Many lots (a then-generous 75 to 90 feet wide and 140 feet deep) had mature trees that had been spared by the developers, and some had great views — the “Hills” of the name referred to the neighborhood’s elevation of 900 to 930 feet, compared with downtown’s 600 feet above sea level.
It was an attractive vision, with 10 families moving in during each of the first six months. After a year, most of the original lots had been sold, with expansions planned that would more than double the original number in five years. Construction of the club, with a swimming pool and putting green, was underway and an elementary school was planned on a 10-acre site that had been set aside.
Most exciting, work was continuing on the collection of shops and other businesses that would become North Star Mall — still a new concept in shopping and leisure time. In 1963, the new Loop 410 (covered here July 9, 2016) was about to become a better, faster connector.
After five years, an estimated 6,000 people lived in Harmony Hills, in households that averaged four people each. They had seen the future, and it worked for them.
The Harmony Hills Birthday Party will be held at 6:30 p.m., Sept. 23 at the neighborhood’s Cabana Club, 339 Fantasia Drive. The program will include a Memory Lane video presentation as well as proclamations from elected officials and a group photograph around the birthday cake.
Current and former residents are invited to share stories and photos with the neighborhood association at admin@ghhna.org or by contacting this column.