Although La Villita is frequently referred to as “an old Spanish town,” its only structure remaining from Spanish times is the small Cos House (circa 1800), where a Mexican general and brother-in-law of Santa Anna ended the Siege of Bexar in 1835 by surrendering his army. Located two blocks south of Mission San Antonio de Valero/the Alamo, La Villita traces its history to the mid-eighteenth century, when squatters claimed mission farmland on the river’s east bank, where the stream was easily forded. After the mission was secularized in 1792 and its farmlands were distributed among Indians, Spanish soldiers and civilians, La Villita, known as Pueblo de Valero, had its own government and mayor. In 1809 it merged with surrounding settlements. Spared from the devastating 1819 flood due to its location on the river’s high bank, La Villita became a desirable place to live. It thrived as a multi-cultural neighborhood through the late 1800s, when it began a decline. In the 1930s, Mayor Maury Maverick secured funding for a National Youth Administration project that restored six houses as an arts and crafts village according to plans of consulting architect O’Neil Ford, who first came to San Antonio to work on this project. Ford sought to create a mood rather than a museum-style restoration specific to a period in time. Dedicated in 1940, La Villita has grown to include some twenty-seven buildings representing continued occupation for more than two hundred years. Renovations, including removal of curbs and leveling of Villita Street, were made in 1980 under Saldaña, Williams & Schubert and Ford, Powell & Carson. With the exception of a handful of structures, La Villita is owned and managed by the City of San Antonio.