Laguna Gloria

June 27, 2006


Water lily at Laguna Gloria

Today I visited the grounds of Laguna Gloria. Once the home of Clara Driscoll, “Savior of the Alamo” (she raised money in 1903 to keep the Alamo from being destroyed to make way for a hotel), nowadays Laguna Gloria is home to the Austin Museum of Art’s art school. The grounds are beautiful. Recently restored, along with the Driscoll Villa, the gardens provide a free, lovely place to stroll on an unusually lovely summer day in Austin (the high was only 88 degrees with low humidity around 3 o’clock today!).

Here are some photos of the formal gardens and the Italianate Driscoll Villa.


Clara’s front lawn. Betcha she didn’t mow the grass.


View of Driscoll Villa from the driveway. The road leads to what looks like the back of the villa to me. The more beautiful side faces the other way, looking over Lake Austin.


Potted yucca


Ancient live oak sheltering statues representing the four seasons


“Autumn” with sheaves of wheat


Through the gate to the terrace


Side view to lake


View of Lake Austin from terrace


View of Driscoll Villa from Lake Austin side


Sinuous live oaks


Charles Umlauf’s “The Poetess” in a sunken rose garden

Tomorrow I’ll post a few pictures of the informal garden, plus my favorite sculpture on the grounds.

1st garden--2006, Garden tours 2006, Museum, Public art, Sculpture, Southwest, Texas, Water gardening

6 responses to “Laguna Gloria”

  1. r sorrell says:
    June 28, 2006 at 10:21 AM

    Laguna Gloria is so gorgeous… I might have to take an art class just so I can hang out there.

  2. Pam says:
    June 28, 2006 at 11:09 AM

    You can hang out there any time. The grounds are open to the public and free. There are plenty of benches along the lagoon where you could even take a picnic lunch.

  3. r sorrell says:
    June 28, 2006 at 3:07 PM

    Ah, yes. What I should have said is that I need to take an art class so that I have an EXCUSE to hang out there regularly.

  4. Annie in Austin says:
    June 28, 2006 at 4:22 PM

    We’ve been to Laguna Gloria several times when it was the venue for the art sales. We had to pay admission each time, so I didn’t realize we could just visit the grounds on our own. Mayfield we know well – that’s one of my favorite places in Austin, and one of the first gardens we found when we moved here.

  5. John says:
    July 5, 2010 at 12:34 AM

    Loved finding your fine Laguna Gloria photojournal. Thoughtful captions. I love the place and have done music for a few events there. Thanks for sharing!