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, masonry home on a parcel of land “way out of town” on Fredericksburg Road, today a major artery in San Antonio, Texas. The structure is the last remaining original German-style stone residence “inside the loop” in the City.
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 fence that at one time surrounded 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 citizens, 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, Texas, approached local neighborhood associations with a proposal to build a retirement community on the vacant, near 12-acre property. In what should be a text-book lesson in cooperative inner-city development, Southwest Housing began the development 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?
Dr. Kellen Kee McIntyre (present Executive Director of Bihl Haus Arts) proposed that the Bihl house be redesigned as a multi-use community arts space to meet the needs of both residents of the proposed Primrose at Monticello Park Senior Apartments, an affordable housing community, and the surrounding neighborhoods. At the time there were no other public arts facilities in the area. Southwest Housing rose to the challenge to preserve this piece of Texas history. It took the concept and the wish-list of neighborhood residents and made them a reality that far surpassed everyone’s expectations. 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, the project is particularly to be commended in that it represents a successful cooperative effort among private, business, and city interests,” wrote Mariana C. Jones, the past president of the Society. What had been an eyesore for many years, the target of vandals and a haven to petty crime, has become a vital community arts center. It is also a motivating force in community efforts to revitalize the Deco District business corridor on Fredericksburg Road, along a section of the historic Old Spanish Trail.

Today, the structure superbly retains the distinguishing exterior qualities of the original construction: stone lintels with arched moldings, foliated cartouches, and rosette details above the façade lower-level openings. The old ‘Alamo’ stones were cleaned, stabilized, and re-grouted in a period style. The two-story interior, which is ADA accessible, boasts 110-year-old wide-plank floors, flexible modern gallery lighting, and a 20-foot high ceiling supported by enormous wooden trussed beams.
The Bihl house was reborn as Bihl Haus Arts (BHA) in the summer of 2005, founded upon the idea proposed by Dr. McIntyre, a former university professor and specialist in Latin American Art History. A committee co-chaired by painter Rita Maria Contreras and made up of neighborhood artists and patrons defined the target audience by a 2-mile radius centered on the Bihl house. They initiated interest among area artists by sponsoring several open houses over the summer in 2005. The response from the artists was so positive, that the committee was able to develop a strategy for using the space.
The inaugural exhibition, which opened on September 15, 2005, featured the works of 16 of the more than 40 practicing professional visual artists living within this geographically defined area, and drew an estimated audience of more than 500! Not long after that first exhibition, BHA expanded its target area to a five-mile radius and Deborah Keller-Rihn became BHA’s Programming Director. The gallery now hosts monthly art exhibitions (20 as of its second anniversary in 2007), frequent poetry readings and other literary events, scholarly lectures, musical and dance performances, and art workshops for Primrose seniors and area residents. BHA sees this as central to its mission: To employ the arts to help integrate Primrose senior residents, often transplantees, into the immediate neighborhood and to build bridges between diverse cultures and across generations.
The gallery supports the work of area emerging and established artists by providing a supportive, professional atmosphere in which to exhibit their work. Bihl Haus Arts has exhibited the work of more than 150 area artists in regular exhibitions, and has provided a forum to dozens of poets and performing artists to present their work to an ever-expanding audience. In addition, BHA brings the art of other cultures to San Antonio, including that of Tibetan painter and former Buddhist monk Rabkar Wangchuck, Japanese photographer Reiko Imoto, now residing in Belgium, Prasanta and Ella Mukherjee, three-dimensional artists from India, and Iranian-American photographer Ramin Samandari. The work of Lea-Anne Sheather, an aboriginal artist from New Zealand, will be featured in January 2008.
Bihl Haus Arts also recently completed the first of a series of collaborative public art projects on the Primrose grounds. Through these projects, Primrose senior residents participate in art making with professional artists that enhances the daily lives of Primrose residents and of members of the surrounding communities. The inaugural intergenerational and multi-cultural project resulted in the construction of two 7-foot high concrete sculptures encased on the lower level with terracotta tiles executed by Primrose Seniors and students from Askew, a Design Studio for Urban Youth, and surmounted by a pair of fiberglass sculptures by lead artist Prasanta Mukherjee. The sculptures are accessible to everyone: terracotta reliefs on the lower level and chimes in the fiberglass sculptures make it accessible to the vision impaired; brilliant color in the mosaics and fiberglass sculptures make it pleasing to the eye; and a carpet of fragrant creeping thyme beneath it perfumes the air. The second project, funded in part by a project grant from San Antonio’s Office of Cultural Affairs, is a pair of mosaic-encrusted sculptural “Dream Benches,” a place for Primrose residents to meet and rest under a canopy of trees near the gallery.
The gallery is staffed by volunteer docents, the majority of whom reside in the Primrose at Monticello Park Senior Apartments. Our docents also prepare food for events, help with mailings, provide computer services such as data entry, and greet visitors and answer their questions. All events are free and open to the public. The gallery is open Fridays and Saturdays, from 1 to 4 pm, and for monthly receptions and other public programming, and is available free of charge to neighborhood groups for meetings and other events. To expand its programming and to better serve its audience, BHA applied for non-profit status in January 2007.