A historic San Antonio home is getting new life as a hub for art and urban movement. Hemisfair has restored the Tynan-Sweeney House to house the first storefront from locally owned guide service Mural Ride Bike Tours.

“The move to the Tynan-Sweeney House is the natural evolution of a mission for us that started on the streets of San Antonio years ago,” said Mural Ride owner and operator Brian Gregory Benavidez. “For years, we’ve been focused on getting more eyes on San Antonio’s street art and showing how cycling is a real way to move through the downtown corridor.”

The 1,675-square-foot Tynan-Sweeney House was built in 1868 by Irish immigrant James Sweeney, serving as a family residence for generations. It served as a boarding house until 1964, when the city started gobbling up buildings for HemisFair '68. At the World’s Fair, it served Cajun fare as Pierre’s Interlude.

The Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation later acquired it as part of their overall revitalization and preservation of the area as a community hub for the city. It was one of the few homes to survive HemisFair demolition, and today it remains one of the few standing examples of vernacular architecture — traditional buildings that used local materials and methods to create functional structures.

Mural Ride was founded in 2018 by Benavidez, an avid cyclist who grew up in Alamo City. It offers a variety of guided walking and biking tours around town that focus on history and art, particularly murals. Some of San Antonio's best murals are just blocks away from the new headquarters, including the 1968 "Confluence of Civilizations" mosaic by Juan O'Gorman and a 2025 "Legacy Mural" by Chris Fonseca.

The new storefront will extend the arty mission with an indoor art gallery and local retail space. The compound will also house the Spoke Spot, a multipurpose area for outdoor community art programming and bike valet, e-bike, and e-scooter charging.

“Moving to a permanent home at Hemisfair finally gives us the opportunity to bring all of that together in one spot,” said Benavidez. “It’s a home base where we can put the spotlight on the artists and local brands we’ve been talking about for years, creating a space that reflects the creative energy of the city for both locals and tourists alike.”

Renovation will begin in the next several months, and Mural Ride Bike Tours is expected to start offering excursions later this year.