History

Bihl Haus Arts

Bihl Haus Arts, a community-based non-profit 501(c)3 organization, is the only professional nonprofit contemporary art gallery on the premises of an affordable senior housing community in the United States.

The story of Bihl Haus Arts is the story of rebirth. It begins in 1920 when George David Bihl built a low-hipped, two-story home on a parcel of land “way out of town” on Fredericksburg Road, today a major artery in the city. The structure is the last remaining original Hill Country-style German stone residence “inside the loop” in San Antonio. According to Mr. Bihl’s daughter, Aileen Bihl Locklar, who was about five years old when her father built the home, the stones originally came from the barricade built by the American military around The Alamo. She remembers her father, who came from a family of stone masons, carting the stones home and cutting them to fit the structure.

The Bihl house passed through several owners and uses in the ensuing years, including a dental office, a plumbing shop, and an antiques store. The last was an auto auction that shut down in response to neighborhood activism, leaving the Bihl house empty and prey to the elements and vandalism for a decade.

During the period of abandonment, numerous attempts to raze the structure were deflected by a small group of concerned, historically minded citizens, some of whom had memories of the Bihl house in its prime. “No one will ever build in your neighborhood!” developers cried after trying to force one appalling proposal after another on the property.

In 2003, Brian Potashnik, owner of Southwest Housing, Inc., of Dallas, approached neighborhood associations in the Deco District area with a proposal to build a retirement community on a near-vacant 12-acre parcel of property in the 2800 block of Fredericksburg Road. In what should be a text-book lesson in cooperative inner-city development, Southwest Housing began by asking for neighborhood input and approval. After numerous meetings, neighborhood residents led by Eric F. Lane got solidly behind the project. But what to do with the dilapidated, crumbling Bihl house that dominated the northeast corner of the property?

Dr. Kellen Kee McIntyre proposed that the Bihl house be redesigned as a multi-use community arts space to meet the needs of both residents of the proposed senior apartment community and the surrounding neighborhoods. At the time there were no other community arts facilities in the area. Southwest Housing rose to the challenge to preserve the historical structure. Mr. Potashnik asked that a plan be developed for the use of the building. In response, Dr. McIntyre formed The Bihl Haus Arts Advisory Committee, co-chaired by artist Rita Maria Contreras and made up of community members. Ron Boling, then Director of the UTSA Art Gallery, served as a technical advisor. The Committee began meeting in summer 2004, and over a four-month period developed a plan, which was presented to Southwest Housing on October 4, 2004. In response, Southwest Housing essentially gifted the long-term use of the building to Dr. McIntyre and the neighborhood. The acceptance of that plan by Southwest Housing marked the formal foundation of Bihl Haus Arts, Inc.

Reconstruction of the building began almost immediately. By the time the building phase was completed in May 2005, Southwest Housing, in a $250,000 renovation project, had met virtually every recommendation made by the design committee. Long before construction was completed, Dr. McIntyre, Ms. Contreras, and other key area figures such as poet Trinidad Sanchez, Jr., led discussions with more than 20 practicing professional artists resident in the immediate neighborhoods, including Rolando Briseño, Angel Rodríguez-Díaz, and Richard Arredondo. The first event at Bihl Haus Arts — an open house and round table discussion for area artists and residents — was held on June 10, 2005. Since that time, Bihl Haus Arts has produced non-stop, diverse, and critically acclaimed cultural programming.

In 2006, the project was awarded the coveted San Antonio Conservation Society Award for restoration and innovative reuse. “Although the house is historically significant in its own right,” wrote Mariana C. Jones, past president of the Society, “the project is particularly to be commended in that it represents a successful cooperative effort among private, business, and city interests.” What had been an eyesore for many years — the target of vandals and a haven to petty crime — had become a vital community arts center and a motivating force in efforts to revitalize the Deco District business corridor on Fredericksburg Road.

Today, the structure superbly retains the distinguishing exterior qualities of the original construction: stone lintels with arched moldings, delicate foliated cartouches, and rosette details above the façade lower-level openings. The old stones were cleaned, stabilized, and re-grouted in a period style. The two-story interior, which is ADA accessible, boasts over 100-year-old wide-plank floors, flexible modern gallery lighting, and a 20-foot high ceiling supported by enormous wooden trussed beams. Bihl Haus Arts received nonprofit status in 2007.

Where We Are Now

Two decades after that first open house, Bihl Haus Arts has grown from a single gallery into a multi-program community institution. We now operate three free arts education programs serving San Antonio’s most underserved communities: GO! Arts, which brings professional art instruction to older adults at 14 senior centers across the city; Forward Arts, which provides free art classes to veterans; and Onward Arts, which offers a welcoming creative space for neurodivergent adults in collaboration with NeurospicySA.

The annual On and Off Fredericksburg Road Studio Tour — now in its 18th year — has become a signature cultural event for the Fredericksburg Road corridor, drawing 1,000 or more visitors each year to the studios and galleries of local working artists. The gallery program continues to showcase diverse local and regional artists, supported by a dedicated docent corps led by Head Docent Linda Manson, many of whom are residents of the Sorrento Apartments next door.

In 2024, Nicholas Gonzales became Executive Director, bringing new energy and vision to the organization’s next chapter. Bihl Haus Arts remains rooted in the belief that every person — regardless of age, background, or ability — will flourish when given access to the arts. That conviction, first articulated in a community meeting in 2004, still drives everything we do.