SAN ANTONIO — With the Tower of Americas overhead and the Alamodome down just a few blocks, Alma Chavarria’s home has a view to San Antonio’s most beloved landmarks.
But her own home on the corner of Cactus and Martin Luther King Drive is also one of them.
"My husband and I, we've never owned a new house, but we owned the Abernathy House," Chavarria said.
The home was built in 1917, but Alma and her husband Eugene have been hearing the rumors for nearly three decades. Some locals believe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself may have been a visitor.
"They kept telling my husband, every time you cut the grass. My grandma has a picture of Martin Luther King on your porch." Chavarria said.
After doing some research into her home, she began to find out more about the previous owners. On the sidewalk, leading to Alma's front gate, a cement block juts above the pavement. The letters F.M.A. are laid out with white tile.
"That's that block is for back in the day, horse and buggy. You would step on it on and off the buggies," Chavarria said.
The F.M.A. stands for Frank Abernathy, the home's previous owner. He may be related to Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Junior’s close friend and mentor.
"There's a lot of stories of people have told me about this house," Chavarria said.
Alma is still holding out for the day she finds the photograph of MLK standing on her porch, but the home is historic for other reasons, too.
Connected to the back of Alma's Spanish-style home is a yellow building with weathered wooden panels and rusted bars over the windows.
"It's the 750 square foot little structure in the back. That one is 112 years old," Chavarria said.
Built in 1910, it was known as the Abernathy Grocery in the '60s. In the 30s and 40s, documents show it was a polling location for African Americans.
"Because of segregation. This touches my heart. You're African-American. You vote here,' Chavarria said, pointing to the building. "That this is the one that touches me."
Over the summer, they also discovered the building had been a church.
"That's the latest we found about it," she said.
The office of Historic Preservation has designated the home as a historic structure, and she has the plaque to show for it.
"I don't believe in putting something your jewelry without being decked up, you know, beautiful and everything," Chavarria said. "I'm longing to see that dedication of that plaque."
One of they ways she hopes to get the home ready for dedication is by turning the old, shabby building into a community and performing arts center.
Alma’s daughters are both professional dancers, so she dreams of creating a space for other dancers to learn.
"It will bring the community, the children around here. And they're going to say, hey, mom, we don't have to go so far," she said.
Alma is rezoning the home to include conditional use for a performing arts studio on top their residential mixed and historic landmark designation. The zoning commission will hear the case on December 6th.
"This is going to bring a lot of people. Every race, every every denomination, anyone that wants to come, come see the little Abernathy house," Chavarria said.