This story has been updated.
Five townhomes are being planned for the site of the former Catholic Worker House on the East Side.
Father-son developers Paul Vance and Patrick Vance formally requested conceptual approval from the city’s Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) to build the Dorothy Day Townhomes at 622 and 626 Nolan Street.
On Wednesday, the Historic and Design Review Commission denied the request following the neighborhood association voicing its opposition and questions arising about rezoning and re-platting the two lots. Commissioner Jeffrey Fetzer called the request premature and Commissioner Monica Savino said it was incomplete for such a “sensitive endeavor,” placing several individual homes on the lots in a historic residential district.
The lots are currently zoned R6, which allows for one primary structure and an accessory dwelling unit.
Though Commissioner Anne-Marie Grube suggested the project could be approved with OHP stipulations and move forward to the Zoning Commission, the remaining commissioners ultimately voted to deny the request as it stood.
The Vances acquired the property in late 2023 after the Catholic Worker House, a nonprofit supporting unhoused individuals in the community for over 30 years, reopened last year at Towne Twin Village at 4711 Dietrich Road.
The townhouse project is focused on preserving and enhancing the historical character of the Dignowity Hill Historic District, according to documents that will be considered by the Historic and Design Review Commission on Wednesday.
It will also introduce thoughtful infill development that “respects the neighborhood’s scale and architectural heritage,” state the documents.
Named a historic district in 1983, the Dignowity Hill neighborhood was San Antonio’s first residential suburb. When the railroad arrived in 1877, industrial development also moved in, altering the character of the neighborhood and its demographic diversity. The area has experienced significant gentrification in recent years.
With a structure at 622 Nolan St. already demolished, the developer is planning three new two-story townhomes on the lot, situated parallel to one another.
Plans also call for restoring the existing Catholic Worker “Day House” at 626 Nolan St. and building another two structures behind it, both with two levels.
City staff is recommending approval for the project with numerous stipulations on material use and requiring additional reviews as the project develops.
Servant Dorothy Day
The original Day House on Nolan Street was named for Dorothy Day, a journalist and social activist who founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933. Today, there are 250 Catholic Worker houses serving vulnerable people in cities across the country.
In 2015, Pope Francis called Day one of the four great Americans. Six years later, the Catholic Church opened the cause for Day’s possible canonization, the first of four steps to being named a saint. The Church refers to her with the title Servant of God.
Open since April 2023, Towne Twin Village is a project of the Housing First Community Coalition, founded in 2017 by several long-standing volunteers and supporters of Catholic Worker House.
Volunteer Chris Plauche, who led the development of Towne Twin, San Antonio’s first single-site permanent supportive housing project, said funds from the sale of the Nolan Street property were used to build the new Catholic Worker House.
The old house had the charm of a cottage and big trees Plauche appreciated, but the new facility is more spacious, she said, and “it’s kind of nice to be in a place that’s brand new.”
Towne Twin will ultimately house more than 200 seniors who have been chronically homeless in tiny homes, trailers and apartments on the property of a former drive-in movie theater on the East Side.
Catholic Worker House provides all the hospitality services for both residents and non-residents, including meals, said Edward Gonzalez, executive director of Towne Twin Village. The new Dorothy Day House of Hospitality opened there in May 2024.
A member of the Bill Miller Barbeque Enterprises family, Paul Vance now works in real estate development and began volunteering at the Catholic Worker House in 2009. Vance currently serves on the board of directors for Towne Twin.
Plauche said that though she’s not involved in the Vances’ project, she appreciates they’re calling it the Dorothy Day Townhomes after the organization’s founder. San Antonio’s Catholic Worker House turns 40 this year, she said.
In April, local officials joined in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the second phase of construction at Towne Twin which opened up 41 new tiny houses.
