The Where I Live series aims to showcase our diverse city and region by spotlighting its many vibrant neighborhoods. Each week a local resident invites us over and lets us in on what makes their neighborhood special. Have we been to your neighborhood yet? Get in touch to share your story. If your story is selected and published, you will receive a $250 stipend.
My parents bought their first house in Alamo Heights, just two doors down from where I now live. It’s the house they went home to after I was born and where we lived until I was about five. It was an itty bitty, teeny tiny house, so we quickly outgrew it and moved to San Antonio’s Northeast Side, where I mostly grew up.
I left San Antonio after high school to pursue my studies and recently earned my doctorate from Texas A&M University. San Antonio is doing exciting things in the sciences right now, so I decided to move back to my hometown to be a part of that.
Luckily, a small house much like the one I spent my early years in was available for rent in Alamo Heights, putting me within walking distance of the University of the Incarnate Word, where I now teach.
I’ve enjoyed walking around UIW’s gorgeous campus and getting to know my colleagues, who have been absolutely lovely. And on my way to campus, I like to stop by Merit Coffee, where the coffee is ridiculously good — and where I’ve spent way too much money.
Another neighborhood hotspot is the local dog park. Many of my neighbors have dogs, so I always run into someone when I’m out walking my dog, and when we go to the dog park, there are plenty of friends for her to play with.
Having been away from San Antonio for a decade and seeing how much the city has changed in that time, it’s been comforting to return to a familiar neighborhood where not much appears to have changed. The residents seem to have preserved the neighborhood much like I remember it, though, of course, there are some changes. At the house my parents used to own, they planted an oak sapling that they named Jonathan out front. Now, about three decades later, Jonathan is enormous.
My neighbors, most of whom are older, are friendly and one neighbor in particular keeps a close eye on me. My mom was telling me about her own similar experience when we used to live here with a neighbor who would always be out on her porch keeping an eye on the neighborhood. We appreciate a nosy neighbor.
The house I currently live in was built in the 1920s and is possibly haunted. Though I’m sure the noises I hear are just squirrels or something like that, if there’s a little old lady’s spirit floating around, I wouldn’t be shocked. She seems cool.
It hasn’t been long since I returned to my hometown, but I’ve really enjoyed settling into this cool little house with my pets, reconnecting with old friends and being close to my family again. My family’s always been tight-knit, so being able to visit my parents and host them in my home has been so nice. My house is halfway between my parents’ house on the Northeast Side and their ranch in Lytle, so they’ll often stop by. I love having them over for a meal and hearing their old stories of the neighborhood. Now living here as an adult, I understand why they loved Alamo Heights so much.
