Live in Tobin Hill
The streets between San Antonio College and the Pearl, where a City historic district covers the 1880s core but only one resident in five, owners lived in 29% of the homes in 2020, and the typical value in ZIP code 78212 was $281,984 in August 2026.
Tobin Hill is named for William G. Tobin, who built an estate on the rise north of downtown in 1883 and was followed by seven members of his family; the Upper Labor acequia had watered the land since 1777, and electric trolleys ran up McCullough, San Pedro and St. Mary's in 1890. This guide takes the area the Tobin Hill Community association filed on the City's registry: about 668 acres from San Pedro Avenue to the McAllister Freeway and from Interstate 35 north to Ashby Place and Huisache Avenue, where the 2020 census counted 4,249 residents, 4% more than on the same blocks in 2010, in 2,986 homes, 35% more. The Pearl, the River Walk's Museum Reach, San Antonio College and the St. Mary's Strip are all inside it. The City's Tobin Hill historic district, 86 acres of it, holds 807 of those residents.
An 1880s suburb between a college and a brewery
The area the Tobin Hill Community association filed on the City of San Antonio's Neighborhood Associations layer (OBJECTID 273), about 668 acres, traced against the Census Bureau's road lines: San Pedro Avenue on the west, from Elmira Street north to Ashby Place; Ashby Place east to McCullough Avenue, and McCullough north to Huisache Avenue; Huisache Avenue on the north, east to the McAllister Freeway (US 281); the freeway, Avenue A and Newell Avenue on the east, beside the Pearl and the San Antonio River; and Elmira Street along Interstate 35 on the south. The association describes the same lines in words: San Pedro Avenue and San Antonio College on the west, US 281, the Pearl and the Museum Reach on the east, Interstate 35 on the south, and Monte Vista and Trinity University on the north. The Cultural Landscape Foundation instead runs it east to Broadway and puts it at about 700 acres. The City's layer does not say that it checks an association's lines. All of it is in Bexar County and San Antonio ISD.
The land north of downtown was farmed off the Upper Labor acequia from 1777. In 1883 William G. Tobin built an estate on the rise, seven members of his family followed, and the hill took his name; from 1890 electric trolleys ran up McCullough, San Pedro and St. Mary's, and shops followed the lines. The brewery that became Pearl was already making lager on the river by 1884, and San Antonio College moved to San Pedro Avenue in 1951. This guide takes the area the Tobin Hill Community association filed on the City's registry: about 668 acres from San Pedro Avenue to the McAllister Freeway and from Interstate 35 north to Ashby Place and Huisache Avenue. The 2020 census counted 4,249 residents there, 4% more than on the same blocks in 2010.
The historic district covers the core, not the neighborhood. The City's Tobin Hill historic district is 86 acres and holds 807 of those residents, about one in five; the five-acre East French Place district holds 45 more, and 55 landmark parcels lie in the whole area. Inside a district or on a landmark, the Unified Development Code requires a certificate of appropriateness before a permit for exterior work, and staff can approve minor alterations and ordinary repairs. This guide read the Code on Municode, because the City's site refuses automated readers. In 2017 a Tobin Hill North district of 88 properties on Mistletoe Avenue won the design commission's support and lost 6 to 1 at the Zoning Commission, and the City's layer shows no such district today.
Most homes are rented, and there are more of them. Homes on the blocks rose 35%, from 2,218 to 2,986, between 2010 and 2020. Owners lived in 677 of the 2,329 occupied homes, 29%, and 657 stood vacant. No price index follows the association's line. Zillow's figure for ZIP code 78212, where 85% of the residents live, was $281,984 in August 2026, down 0.8% on the year; 78215, which takes in the Pearl's side, was $423,181, and the Bexar County median sale $280,999. 78212 holds 26,738 people, so it describes far more than Tobin Hill. The school district is San Antonio ISD, at 1.1552 per $100 against Northside's 1.0049, and on the seven units' 2025 rates a homestead at the 78212 figure owes about $4,566 a year and the same home without the exemption about $6,882. The method is on the San Antonio page.
The river is on the east side, and the flood tunnel starts here. FEMA's effective map puts 1.4% of the area in the 1% annual chance zone and no resident's block in it. The San Antonio River's flood tunnel, finished in 1997, takes water in at Josephine Street and carries it about three miles under downtown to Lone Star Boulevard. The nearest mapped low-water crossing is about 1.8 km away in Brackenridge Park, but flash flooding reaches beyond any map.
Groceries came late. In 2023 the nearest supermarkets for Pearl residents were the H-E-B on Olmos Drive and the Central Market on Broadway, each about ten minutes' drive; Pullman Market, a specialty grocer, now trades at the Pearl. Methodist Hospital Metropolitan on McCullough Avenue keeps a 24-hour emergency room inside the line, and VIA's 20 and 4 Frequent routes stop inside it.
- Check the address against the City's historic district and landmark layers before planning exterior work
- Work the tax out on San Antonio ISD's rate, not the Northside ISD figure on the city page
- Ask the appraisal district whether the seller's homestead exemption is on the record, and file your own
- Price a flood policy even outside the mapped zone
- Confirm the zoned schools with San Antonio ISD, whose public map dates from 2021-22
How Tobin Hill got here
- 1777The Upper Labor acequia, an irrigation ditch along the line of today's St. Mary's Street, is completed, and the land north of town is farmed.
- 1876The real estate firm Gillum & Yongue buys about 175 acres, which become the Gillum Addition.
- 1878Mule-drawn streetcar service reaches downtown, the first step toward a suburb on the hill.
- 1883William G. Tobin builds an estate on the hill, and seven members of his family follow him; the area takes his name.
- 1884The brewery that becomes Pearl begins producing lager on the river at the neighborhood's eastern edge.
- 1890Electric trolleys run along McCullough Avenue, San Pedro Avenue and St. Mary's Street, and shops follow the lines.
- 1933Within fifteen minutes of the end of Prohibition in Texas on 15 September, 100 trucks and 25 boxcars of Pearl beer roll out.
- 1951San Antonio College moves to San Pedro Avenue, on the neighborhood's western edge.
- 1997The San Antonio River flood tunnel is finished in March, from an inlet at Josephine Street to Lone Star Boulevard, about three miles south.
- 2001The Pearl brewery closes in June.
- 2002Silver Ventures buys the 22-acre Pearl Brewery complex and plans its redevelopment around the old buildings.
- 2008The Tobin Hill Community Association incorporates in September, and on 11 December the City designates the Midtown reinvestment zone, 747 acres, part of it inside the neighborhood.
- 2009The River Walk's $72 million Museum Reach opens, reaching the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Pearl.
- 2010The census counts 4,071 residents and 2,218 homes on the blocks inside today's line.
- 2015Hotel Emma, named for Emma Koehler, opens in the Pearl's old brewhouse.
- 2017In May the Zoning Commission votes 6 to 1 against a proposed Tobin Hill North historic district of 88 properties along Mistletoe Avenue; the City's historic district layer shows no such district today.
- 2020The census counts 4,249 residents and 2,986 homes inside the line; owners live in 677 of the 2,329 occupied homes.
- 2023Emmer & Rye announce Pullman Market, a 40,000-square-foot grocer in the 1948 Samuels Glass building at the Pearl; it now trades at 221 Newell Avenue.
The Museum Reach on one side, San Pedro Springs on the other
The River Walk's Museum Reach, opened in 2009, follows the San Antonio River past the Pearl on the eastern edge and south to the San Antonio Museum of Art and downtown. Crockett Park on North Main Avenue is inside the line. Just west, San Pedro Springs Park has a City pool and the San Pedro Branch Library, the first branch the city built, opened in 1930; Brackenridge Park lies east across US 281.
What the map does not show: how little public green is inside the line. Crockett Park and a small urban space at St. Mary's and Josephine are the only City parks within it on the City's layer; the rest is the river path and the parks beside it.
Elsewhere in San Antonio, not Tobin Hill
23 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 23 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from OpenStreetMap's place node for Tobin Hill, between North Main Avenue and St. Mary's Street, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
No City pool, recreation center or YMCA is inside the line. The D.R. Semmes Family YMCA is north on St. Mary's Street, and San Pedro Springs Park Pool, just west, was open from 1 to 8 p.m. at weekends at the end of September.
- San Pedro Springs Park Pool: about 1.5 km
- D.R. Semmes Family YMCA: about 2.7 km, open every day
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| D.R. Semmes Family YMCA open | The YMCA of Greater San Antonio branch at 3233 North St. Mary's Street, north of the boundary: cardio and weights, a climbing wall, cycling and Pilates reformer classes, and supervised childcare. Open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. | 6–8 min |
| San Pedro Springs Park Pool open | The nearest City pool, at 2200 North Flores Street in San Pedro Springs Park, just west of the boundary: open 1 to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays on the City's layer on 30 September 2026. | 4–6 min |
| Museum Reach open | The free option: the river path along the eastern edge, south to downtown and north toward Brackenridge Park. | 4–6 min |
The free option is the Museum Reach path along the river.
One zoned campus to grade 8, and choice schools inside
Every block is in the San Antonio Independent School District. On its 2021-22 attendance map, the most recent it publishes, every block is zoned to Hawthorne PK-8 Academy on West Josephine Street, rated D (66) for 2026 after D (69), and to Edison High School on Santa Monica Street, rated B (85). Inside the line are two schools a family applies to: Travis Early College High School, rated A (97), and Great Hearts Monte Vista, a charter school to grade 5, rated B (86).
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hawthorne PK-8 Academy | San Antonio Independent School District | 115 West Josephine Street, inside the boundary, prekindergarten to grade 8. On the district's 2021-22 attendance map, the most recent it publishes, it is the zoned school for every one of the 4,249 residents' blocks, and because it runs to grade 8 the map needs no separate middle school here. The Texas Education Agency rated it D, 66, for 2026 and D, 69, for 2025; 78.2% of its students counted as economically disadvantaged. |
| Edison High School | San Antonio Independent School District | 701 Santa Monica Street, northwest of the boundary: the high school zone for every block on the 2021-22 map. Rated B, 85, for 2026 and C, 79, for 2025, with a graduation rate component of 98.6; 88.4% of its students counted as economically disadvantaged. |
| Travis Early College High School | San Antonio Independent School District | 1915 North Main Avenue, inside the boundary: a choice campus a family applies to, not a zoned seat. Rated A, 97, for 2026. |
| Great Hearts Monte Vista | Great Hearts Texas | 211 Belknap Place, inside the boundary: a public charter school, kindergarten to grade 5, open by application rather than by address. Rated B, 86, for 2026. |
Confirm the zone with San Antonio ISD for the exact address before you commit. Its public map is from 2021-22, and no current zone could be read here.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The Bexar Appraisal District values every property as of 1 January; last year's bill is due by 31 January
- Highs near 17 °C and lows near 5 °C at San Antonio International, with about five nights at or below freezing on the 1991 to 2020 normal
- Penalty and interest start on unpaid tax bills on 1 February
- The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo runs from 11 to 28 February 2027
- Highs near 20 °C and 44 mm of rain, the driest month on the normal
- Highs near 23 °C and lows near 11 °C
- 59 mm of rain, and about one night at or below freezing on the normal
- Fiesta San Antonio runs citywide from 15 to 25 April 2027
- Highs near 27 °C and lows near 15 °C, with 61 mm of rain
- 15 May, or 30 days after the appraisal district mails its notice if that is later, is the deadline to protest a value
- 112 mm of rain, the wettest month on the normal and the start of the late-spring flash flood season
- About 12 days reaching 32 °C (90 °F)
- Highs near 34 °C and lows near 23 °C, with about 24 days reaching 32 °C on the normal
- 83 mm of rain
- Highs near 35 °C, with about 28 days reaching 32 °C and six reaching 38 °C (100 °F)
- San Pedro Springs Park Pool, just west of the boundary, is the nearest City pool
- Highs near 36 °C and lows near 24 °C, the hottest month on the normal
- About nine days reaching 38 °C (100 °F), the most of any month
- 99 mm of rain, the second wettest month on the normal, and the start of the autumn flash flood season
- The nearest mapped low-water crossing, East Mulberry Avenue at the San Antonio River, is about 1.8 km northeast in Brackenridge Park
- 95 mm of rain, close behind September, while the autumn flash flood season lasts
- Highs near 28 °C and lows near 16 °C; only 1.4% of the area is in FEMA's 1% annual chance zone, and flash flooding reaches beyond it
- The 45th Ford Holiday River Parade is on the downtown River Walk on 27 November 2026
- Highs near 22 °C and lows near 10 °C
- The San Antonio Marathon runs from 4 to 6 December 2026
- Highs near 18 °C and lows near 6 °C, with about four nights at or below freezing on the normal
Every photograph in this guide's library is above
This library holds 5 photographs and the page has already printed all of them, each once. The credits are in the footer.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Tobin Hill, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared San Antonio library.