Each year we offer free school tours for over 3,000 San Antonio fourth graders to historic sites we helped save, like Missions San Jose and Concepcion, the Steves Homestead, Casa Navarro, and the Spanish Governor’s Palace. Noted historians and conservators present at our Membership Meetings and Historic Preservation Month event. Our Library is a go-to resource for the history of San Antonio.
The Conservation Society of San Antonio
What We Do
HOW THE CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF SAN ANTONIO HELPS
Education
Grants
Each year during the fall, The Conservation Society of San Antonio awards building grants to help preserve historic properties through the region, from modest Victorian cottages to grand churches and commercial buildings. During this time, the Society also awards grants for educational projects such as research, video production, publication printing, and documents conservation.
There are two scholarship programs for college students the Society also supports with the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Texas Architectural Foundation.
House Museum
The Yturri-Edmunds House on the Mission Reach offers a rare opportunity to view an intact 19th century adobe brick house on mission land.
Advocacy
We attend every meeting of the City’s Historic and Design Review Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals, Board of Adjustment and every City Council meeting where decisions regarding historic sites and districts are made. We hold legislative meetings with our representatives at the state and federal levels when preservation laws will be impacted. Locally, our Neighborhood Liaison Committee members attend resident association and community meetings to keep in touch with what San Antonians find important about their neighborhoods.
Events
We host A Night In Old San Antonio®, one of the largest and oldest historic preservation cultural heritage events in the United States. The four-night event during Fiesta attracts 80,000 visitors to a celebration of San Antonio’s cultural diversity rendered in costume, music, food and drink. Proceeds from this event support the San Antonio community in many ways including the funding of our Building Grants and Educational Grants.
Survey
Our Historic Surveys committee and our Historic Farm and Ranch Complexes committee help inventory the heritage resources in the city, county and surrounding areas. We work closely with the City of San Antonio’s Office of Historic Preservation to make sure the most significant sites are preserved.