Norton-Polk-Mathis House, Historic house museum in San Antonio, United States
Norton-Polk-Mathis House, known as Villa Finale, is a 6,500-square-foot historic house museum at 401 King William St. in San Antonio. Built in four stages from 1876, it gained a two-story rear addition under Edwin Polk and an Italianate facade and tower by architect James Wahrenberger in 1898. Its rooms hold 12,850 objects left where collector Walter Nold Mathis placed them.
The house was first built in 1876 by merchant Russel C. Norton as a small home, then expanded with a second story and a tower under later owners. Walter Nold Mathis bought it in 1967, restored it, and named it Villa Finale because he intended it to be his last residence.
The home is cared for by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which keeps its role as the only National Trust Historic Site in Texas alive. Inside, the display of Napoleon-related objects and Texas decorative arts shows a local collector's taste more than a typical family household.
Plan to move through the home’s rooms and garden at an easy pace, as the collection is dense with small objects. The property is best explored on foot with comfortable shoes, since some areas have narrow doorways and uneven garden paths.
Billy Keilman, called the house's "most colorful owner," bought it in 1924 and used the basement for moonshining while his wife operated a bordello upstairs; he met a violent end in 1925. Keilman also published The Blue Book, a guide rating San Antonio's red-light establishments. In the garden, columns salvaged from Mathis's demolished Monte Vista home carry an iron dome of his own 1980s design.
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