Our Lady of the Lake University

The land came with a condition. In 1895 Mayor Henry Elmendorf deeded eighteen acres south of Elmendorf Lake to the Sisters of Divine Providence, provided they spent $75,000 on improvements within ten years. The congregation eventually held seventy-one acres and put up thirty-four buildings. James Wahrenberger designed Old Main in Victorian Gothic, and Leo M. J. Dielmann's Gothic chapel of 1923 is known for its spires, Italian marble altars and German stained glass. In 1927 the college became the third Texas school approved by the American Association of Universities; it admitted men from 1969.

What the plaque says

Our Lady of the Lake University The heritage of this Catholic University reflects the early educational efforts of Jean Martin Moye, an 18th-century French educator, and American Bishops at the 1866 council of Baltimore. In order to carry out the council's mandates, Bishop Dubuis of Texas that same year recruited sisters from the congregation of Divine Providence, in the Lorraine village of St. Jean De Bassel, to come to Texas. In 1895, after years of work in Austin and Castroville, Mother Florence Walter relocated the congregation to San Antonio. A sixteen-acre site on the edge of Lake Elmendorf, in th city's early lake view addition, was chosen for the establishment of a Girl's Academy. The school opened in 1896, with offering from kindergarten through high school. Classes were first held in a four-story brick building. Adjacent land and new structures were added as the school grew. College course were first offered in 1911. Eight years later, the school obtained the status of a senior college. Form a foundation of progressive Eruopean Educational pholosophy, our Lady of the Lake Univeristy has developed as one of Texas' leading institutions of higher learning. (1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 2.8 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 2.9 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 3.0 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.
• King William Historic District — 3.1 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.

More markers nearby

• Lydia Mendoza — 0.9 mi
• The Grass Fight — 1.8 mi
• Wesley Peacock House — 1.8 mi
• Protestant Home for Destitute Children — 1.9 mi