The Castle

Using the same process of comparison, we were able to identify the Lambermont House, also known as Terrell Castle. It stands at the corner of East Grayson and Willow streets in San Antonio, Texas, near Fort Sam Houston.

This structure, shown in its modern state (left), was inspired by the French chateaus and Belgian castles that Edwin Holland Terrell saw while serving as the United States minister to Belgium in the 1890s.  Terrell Castle was commissioned for construction in 1894, and the Terrell family lived there until 1910.   Currently, it is known as the Lambermont event center.

The distinctive architecture of Terrell Castle is a big clue towards locating this image in San Antonio, Texas, but it does not help us focus our date range. The mounted units in the Battle of Flowers Parade image is still best for that.  Nevertheless, we have come a long way in figuring out what we are looking at.

In this case, the main subject -- soldiers marching on the field -- is not the most telling about when and where the image was captured.  It was the details in the background that revealed that information.  This emphasizes the need to give equal attention to all elements of an image.  In the Battle of Flowers Parade images, it was a combination of background and forefront elements that gave us details about the when, where, and why.