Picture the scene in 1916: a Mediterranean Revival villa rising on a finger of land where Barton Creek meets the Colorado River, on Lake Austin's edge. The woman who built it was Clara Driscoll, and her story is inseparable from Texas history. In 1903, Driscoll personally financed the purchase of the Alamo when it was threatened with commercial development — she spent $65,000 of her family's fortune to save the shrine of Texas independence, earning her the title 'Savior of the Alamo.' Driscoll designed Laguna Gloria as her personal retreat, modeling it on the Italian villas she had admired during European travel.
The house became an art museum in 1943 when the Texas Fine Arts Association took it over, and it remained Austin's primary art venue for decades. The lush grounds — live oaks, wild rosemary, the shimmer of Lake Austin — make Laguna Gloria one of the most beautiful settings for any museum in Texas. The sculpture garden allows art to exist in dialogue with the Hill Country landscape.
Clara Driscoll understood that Texas needed both its history and its beauty preserved. She made sure both survived.