A Guide to the Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (bulk 1909-1944)

Biographical Note

Part of the wave of German immigration to Texas in the mid-nineteenth century, Albert Dittmar came to south-central Texas with his parents in the 1850s. He began the study of law after coming to Texas and practiced in New Braunfels before moving to San Antonio. After serving in the Confederate army during the Civil War, Dittmar returned to his hometown of Darmstadt, Germany, and married Emmy von Rehfues, a daughter of a German baron and relative of the Herff family, likewise prominent German-Texans. The couple moved to San Antonio, where their children Charles, Lily, Guido, Mathilde (Mattie), and John were born.

Prior to his death in 1887, Dittmar amassed a considerable amount of San Antonio-area real estate, which became the basis of the family business. Charles Dittmar practiced law after receiving his degree from the University of Texas, but also devoted much of his time to the family property holdings. John Dittmar had business interests in San Antonio, in particular the Southern Welding and Machine Co., and also was involved in management of family holdings. Guido Dittmar studied law at the University of Virginia and then worked in Washington, D. C. and New York before returning to Texas, where he pursued real estate interests. Lily Dittmar married Dr. Richard A. Goeth of San Antonio and had two children, Richard L. and Lily, before her death in 1907. None of the other Dittmar children married.

The Dittmars were active in the social life of San Antonio, particularly within the German-American community. They also maintained close ties to family in Germany and frequently returned for visits.

Property owned by the Dittmars included commercial buildings within the city of San Antonio and undeveloped land which, at the time, was outside the city limits. One of the family’s most ambitious projects came under the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company, which was formed in 1929 to build a new apartment-style hotel adjacent to the family residence on Howard Street in San Antonio. Designed by architect Richard Vander Straten, the Aurora Apartment Hotel was built in 1928-1930. Consisting of over eighty apartments with varying floor plans, the building was furnished with antiques and artwork gathered from around the world. Retail space occupied the first floor of the ten-story structure. A parking garage and other support buildings were also constructed. After the 1929 stock market crash, additional financing was necessary to complete the project, and a bond issue of $550,000 was arranged, secured by a deed of trust to the Aurora Apartments. Default on a second mortgage note by the company led to the appointment of a receiver for the property in 1932. Bondholders later organized and purchased the building at a foreclosure sale in 1936, under a company called Aurora Apartments Hotel, Inc.

The financial difficulties led the Dittmars to obtain additional financing of $408,000 in 1930, secured by various properties of the Dittmar Properties Company. This agreement eventually led to lawsuits by the Dittmars against the lenders over title to the property, the Dittmars claiming the formation of a conspiracy to defraud them of their land.

Other entities in which the Dittmars were involved included the Central Development Company, primarily involved with downtown San Antonio property, and the Herff and Dittmar Land Company, which controlled 1,200 acres in the Olmos basin of San Antonio, originally owned by Albert Dittmar and Ferdinand Herff.

References

Barnes, Charles Merritt. Combats and Conquests of Immortal Heroes. San Antonio: Guessaz and Ferlet Co., 1910.

Chabot, Frederick C. With the Makers of San Antonio: Genealogies of the Early Latin, Anglo-American, and German Families with Occasional Biographies, Each Group Being Prefaced with a Brief Historical Sketch and Illustrations. San Antonio: Artes Graficas, 1937.

Davis, Ellis A., and Edwin H. Grobe, eds. The New Encyclopedia of Texas. Dallas: Texas Development Bureau, undated.

Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (bulk 1909-1944), Col 1276, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

Wharton, Clarence R. Texas Under Many Flags. Chicago: American Historical Society, Inc., 1930.

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Scope and Content Note

Correspondence, property records, legal documents, financial records, printed material, and photographs record the business and personal activities of several Dittmar family members. The first, and more extensive, series is Business and Professional Papers, which relate primarily to business entities formed to develop family real estate holdings. A significant portion is connected to the Emmy Dittmar Improvement Company, and a majority of these papers are associated with Charles Dittmar and his brother John. The second series, Personal Papers, documents the non-business activities of the family and is primarily related to Emmy Dittmar and her daughter Mattie.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

No restrictions. The collection is open for research.

Usage Restrictions

Please be advised that the library does not hold the copyright to most of the material in its archival collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to secure those rights when needed. Permission to reproduce does not constitute permission to publish. The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming to the laws of copyright, literary property rights, and libel.

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Related Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Dittmar Family Papers, 1874-1944 (bulk 1909-1944), Col 1276, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Don Estes and Evelyn Cooper, circa 1970-1979.

Processing Information

Preliminary processing by Virginia Davis, Kathryn M. Jones, Linda Mechler, Theresa L. Miller, students in the Archives and Manuscripts class, University of Texas at Austin, 1995 December.

Final processing by Warren Stricker, 1998 May.

German-language letters in Subseries 2.1 translated by Lore A. Senseney, 2010-2011.

Finding aid edited and encoded by Tom D'Amore, 2011 October.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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