The Ellis Alley Enclave

The Ellis Alley Enclave. . The houses preserved as the Ellis Alley Enclave are what remain of one of the first settlements of African Americans in San Antonio after Emancipation., Originally part of a Spanish land grant, much of the area was acquired by Dr. Anthony Dignowity and Sam Maverick. By the late 1860s, the land in the area was being developed. From its earliest settlement the area was racially mixed: however, with the passage of laws permitting freedmen to own property, Maverick began subdividing his land into 25 foot lots which, beginning in 1879, were purchased solely by African Americans., Ellis Alley was the hub of the flourishing African American community for the first decades of the 20th century, and the neighborhood from which the "Black East Side" of San Antonio evolved. As the inhabitants of Ellis Alley prospered and neighborhoods further east evolved as more desirable residential sites, the area lost its stability and became a haven for itinerants and people drawn to the area by the adjacent commercial and entertainment establishments., The restoration of these remaining dwellings is the result of a public-private partnership between VIA Metropolitan Transit, the City of San Antonio, Neighborhoods Acting Together and the San Antonio Conservation Society.