The Wulff House, built by German immigrant Anton Wulff c. 1870, stands at the entrance to King William Street. The three-story, Italianate style house features random coursed ashlar limestone walls, a distinctive tower room, and a raised basement. Wulff, who came to Texas in 1848 and settled in San Antonio in the 1850’s, became a prominent local merchant, as well as an alderman, and the city’s first parks commissioner. After a series of owners, the Wulff House fell into disrepair and was slated for demolition when the Conservation Society purchased it in June, 1974. Sparked by a $100,000 grant from the Sheerin Foundation, the Society undertook a campaign, led by Walter Nold Mathis, to raise matching funds to purchase of the building for $200,000. The restoration cost more than $250,000, eighty percent of which came from a U.S. Economic Development Agency grant and twenty percent from funds raised by the Society. The Wulff House became the second historic structure, after the Ursuline Academy property in 1974, to receive this type of federal funding for restoration purposes. Restoration of the house was completed in the fall of 1975. A 1979 gift from Mrs. Sam Maddox enabled the Foundation to reproduce the iron fence that had originally surrounded the property. The Society accepted the iron rose arbor from the Cable House property as a gift from the Southwest Research Foundation in 1980. At the present time, the San Antonio Conservation Society and the San Antonio Conservation Foundation use the property to house their headquarters. The Conservation Society Library and Archives are located on the third floor. More Society Properties