Barrio Laredito

A vacant property that history advocates have been fighting to save caught fire late Wednesday night in San Antonio. 503 Urban Loop — a former brothel and later orphanage — found itself at the center of local controversy last summer after its owners filed a request to demolish the building.

One of San Antonio’s oldest neighborhoods dates back nearly 300 years. But by the 1970s, gentrification led to the demolition of an area west of the San…

Barrio Laredito was established in what’s now downtown San Antonio, just west of San Pedro Creek. Though the small neighborhood disappeared due to…