It’s easy to overlook the little house at 601 Dolorosa, In 1885 it was the home of William Sydney Porter who, under the pen name of O. Henry, is considered one of the finest American short story writers (You read “The Ransom of Red Chief” in school, didn’t you?) In his year in San Antonio, he wrote some of his most famous stories and edited a newspaper called “Rolling Stone.” The next year he moved to Austin, was arrested for embezzlement and spent the next three years in jail.
The house was originally on S. Presa. In 1959, the San Antonio Conservation Society purchased the home for a symbolic one dollar and moved it to the grounds of the Lone Star Brewing Company where it was part of the Buckhorn museum collection until the brewery closed in 1997. In 1998 the house was moved once more. It re-opened as a museum in 1999.
Hoping to use O. Henry as a role model, Bexar County Chief Probation Officer Caesar Garcia assigns his probationers as docents in the O. Henry Museum to fulfill their Community Service.You can’t actually enter the house — it’s too small for visitors — but make sure you read the historic plaque and poke your head in the door.
(The O. Henry House is just a 10-minute walk from the event hotel. Upon leaving the hotel turn right onto Cesar Chavez then make an immediate left onto Santa Rosa. In three blocks you’ll turn right onto Dolorosa, cross S. Laredo, and you’ll see it thereon the left.)
