Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Mountain Landscape History: San Antonio
- In 1931, William A. Fraser, who had overseen the commission of Mountain Landscape, had the window removed and reinstalled in its new home, the recently constructed William A. Fraser Chapel at the Woodmen of the World Memorial Hospital, a free tuberculosis sanitorium in San Antonio.
- The chapel was designed to be ecumenical – Fraser described a “universal church” where a “Protestant, Jew or Catholic” can hold services (“Construction to Be Started on New W.O.W. Chapel and Bird Sanctuary,” Shiner Gazette (Shiner, TX), October 23, 1930, p. 6)
- Architecture by Phelps Dewees (later Phelps & Dewees & Simmons) firm in San Antonio
- Chapel to function as memorial to deceased Woodmen members
- Huge event for chapel dedication ceremony in 1931—railroads offered special prices; Woodmen of the World paid fares of several thousand members. Over 50,000 expected to attend. “Special Trains to Bring 50,000 to San Antonio for W.O.W. Affair,” Brookshire Times (Brookshire, TX), October 9, 1931, p. 3. Reprinted in Crosbyton Review (Crosbyton, TX), October 16, 1931
- In addition to central Mountain Landscape window, chapel featured lancet windows that made up an “art memorial dedicated to the States in which the Woodmen of the World does business”
o Proposal drawings for the lancet state windows are held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Louis C. Tiffany | Scheme B, Suggestion for windows, Memorial Hospital, Woodmen of the Word, San Antonio, Texas | American | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The 225-bed tuberculosis hospital where Fraser Chapel was constructed had opened in 1923
- The hospital was free for tuberculosis patients who were Woodmen members. “The hospital is an outgrowth of a life dream of mine…being a native Texan…I also knew that more important than all in the saving of life would be the Texas sunshine” –William A. Fraser quoted in “Texas Sunshine and W.O.W. Hospital Save 2,000 Lives,” Aspermont Star (Aspermont, TX), November 15, 1928, p. 2.
- The hospital closed in 1956, and Sunset Ridge Church of Christ purchased the property in 1959 (“Open House at Sunset Ridge,” Express and News (San Antonio), December 5, 1959, p. 48; Bonnie Sue Jacobs, “Tiffany Windows,” San Antonio Express, June 21, 1972, p. 19)
Mountain Landscape History: San Antonio
- In 1931, William A. Fraser, who had overseen the commission of Mountain Landscape, had the window removed and reinstalled in its new home, the recently constructed William A. Fraser Chapel at the Woodmen of the World Memorial Hospital, a free tuberculosis sanitorium in San Antonio.
- The chapel was designed to be ecumenical – Fraser described a “universal church” where a “Protestant, Jew or Catholic” can hold services (“Construction to Be Started on New W.O.W. Chapel and Bird Sanctuary,” Shiner Gazette (Shiner, TX), October 23, 1930, p. 6)
- Architecture by Phelps Dewees (later Phelps & Dewees & Simmons) firm in San Antonio
- Chapel to function as memorial to deceased Woodmen members
- Huge event for chapel dedication ceremony in 1931—railroads offered special prices; Woodmen of the World paid fares of several thousand members. Over 50,000 expected to attend. “Special Trains to Bring 50,000 to San Antonio for W.O.W. Affair,” Brookshire Times (Brookshire, TX), October 9, 1931, p. 3. Reprinted in Crosbyton Review (Crosbyton, TX), October 16, 1931
- In addition to central Mountain Landscape window, chapel featured lancet windows that made up an “art memorial dedicated to the States in which the Woodmen of the World does business”
o Proposal drawings for the lancet state windows are held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Louis C. Tiffany | Scheme B, Suggestion for windows, Memorial Hospital, Woodmen of the Word, San Antonio, Texas | American | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The 225-bed tuberculosis hospital where Fraser Chapel was constructed had opened in 1923
- The hospital was free for tuberculosis patients who were Woodmen members. “The hospital is an outgrowth of a life dream of mine…being a native Texan…I also knew that more important than all in the saving of life would be the Texas sunshine” –William A. Fraser quoted in “Texas Sunshine and W.O.W. Hospital Save 2,000 Lives,” Aspermont Star (Aspermont, TX), November 15, 1928, p. 2.
- The hospital closed in 1956, and Sunset Ridge Church of Christ purchased the property in 1959 (“Open House at Sunset Ridge,” Express and News (San Antonio), December 5, 1959, p. 48; Bonnie Sue Jacobs, “Tiffany Windows,” San Antonio Express, June 21, 1972, p. 19)
