Born at Hillingdon, Middlesex, England on May 23, 1853, Alfred Giles attended the Proprietary School at Gravesend, Kent. He finished school at the age of 17 and took on an apprenticeship with the architectural firm of Giles (no relation) and Bivens in London for two years. Upon completion of his apprenticeship, he briefly worked for the firm before immigrating to the United States in 1873. Due to illness, he found his way to Texas in 1875 where he found employment with John H. Kampmann, a San Antonio contractor.
By 1876, Giles had established his own firm, which over the years would produce designs for over 90 structures. These included the residence of Edward Steves, a prominent San Antonian, the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, located on the campus of Incarnate Word College, both, along with many others in San Antonio. He also designed county courthouses for Webb, Bandera, Gillespie and Wilson counties. Through his branch office in Monterrey, Mexico, he designed many buildings that can be found in Monterrey, Saltillo, Durango, Pueblo, and Chihuahua.
Giles’s work has been described as having “a great variety of styles derived from architectural forms of the past, usually in more or less new combinations. Giles’s own means of expression always took precedence over novelty of fashion. Giles produced designs for unpretentious domestic residences and show mansions, courthouses, and commercial and institutional structures all over Texas. He adapted and combined stylistic elements with restraint, sobriety and simplicity.” (The Handbook of Texas Online)
In 1908 he became chairman of the Texas State Association of Architects and presided over the organizational banquet of the Society of San Antonio Architects, on August 6, 1908.
In 1881, Alfred Giles married Annie Laura James, the daughter of John James, a surveyor of Bexar County. They had 8 children and after the purchase of Hillingdon Ranch, resided with his family on the ranch near Comfort, Texas until his death in 1920.
Hillingdon Ranch consisted of 13,000 acres and included horses, mules, registered Aberdeen-Angus cattle, and Angora goats. His successes in ranching were evident by the prizes his livestock won at the San Antonio Fair and Great International Exposition. In 1904, his Aberdeen-Angus cattle won 15 blue ribbons. Giles was a founding member of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers’ Association and a member of the Texas Cattle Raisers’ Association.
The bulk of the material spans the years 1861-1955 and largely includes correspondence, photographs, photograph albums, artwork (sketches and paintings), and other materials by Alfred Giles, his spouse Mary James Giles, daughters Mary Milby Giles and Annie Marcella Giles Booth and sons Geoffrey James Giles and Ernest Palmer Giles and are related to family and Hillingdon Ranch. Also found within the collection are books on architectural structures in and around San Antonio and on household management, which includes recipes. Diaries, scrapbooks, a birth certificate, baptismal record, Alfred Giles' will, stock certificates, and other legal documents can also be found within the collection.
The material that ranges between the years 1972-1989 includes clippings and magazines that relate mostly to Hillingdon Ranch and Alfred Giles and his architecture work. There is also a genealogy chart for the Giles family.
This collection is housed at UTSA's Main Campus and must be accessed via the John Peace Library Special Collections reading room. To request access, please use the
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections holds the Mary Carolyn Hollers George Papers, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utsa/00030/utsa-00030.html.
University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections houses an unprocessed collection featuring photographs of Alfred Giles' work. Ask UTSA Archives staff for more information about this collection.
The Alexandar Architectural Archive holds the Alfred Giles (1853-1920) Drawings, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utaaa/00044/aaa-00044.html.
Donation from David and Myrna Langford in December 2009 (Acc. 2010-001).
The collection is in 1 accession (Acc. 2010-001) and has been encoded by Tatina Wulzer, Collections Assistant. More detailed processing is not anticipated at this time.
[Identification of item], Alfred Giles Family Papers, MS 325, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.
In general, copies are original unless otherwise noted. Most letters include envelopes and are on Hillingdon Ranch or Alfred Giles letterheads. Material was foldered and labeled according to an original check list. Some of the items do not have Box or folder numbers. They were not identified during the accessioning process.