Robert H.H. Hugman

Who was Robert H.H. Hugman?

Robert H. H. Hugman was an American architect and the acknowledged visionary behind the now world-famous San Antonio River Walk.

Born in San Antonio as Robert Harvey Harold Hugman, he finished Brackenridge High, before graduating from the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Texas at Austin in 1924. He worked in New Orleans from 1924 to 1927. Robert and his wife Martha had a son, Robert Harvey Harold Hugman, Jr, born on March 8, 1925.

The Vieux Carré Commission, established in New Orleans in 1925, was "a close second" to Charleston as the earliest governmental historic preservation agency in the country, though its powers were only advisory. The efforts to save the Spanish colonial buildings of the French Quarter, inspired Hugman to join those seeking to hold onto his city's rich architectural heritage when he returned to San Antonio.

After the city's downtown suffered a series of floods, with the worst in 1921, plans had been proposed to convert that part of the San Antonio River into a paved-over concrete storm sewer. The San Antonio Conservation Society and other civic groups rallied to oppose the idea.