Ryall Luther White (1878-1962), born in Jasper, Texas to John Luther Calvin White and Texanna Priscilla Ryall White, married Ethel Gertrude Smyth in 1907 and began working for his father-in-law as manager of the Uvalde Rock Asphalt Company. In 1920, he resigned to open his own paving company, the Alamo Paving Company, in San Antonio, paving exclusively with rock asphalt. He bought his own rock asphalt mine to secure his material supply and joined forces with his brother, Tom White. By 1928, Whites Mine Corporation had developed a new process to manufacture a cold-mix paving material onsite and began marketing the product during the Great Depression. In 1926, White began building the ranch that became one of the largest ranches in northwest Bexar County. The ranch reflects his desire to impress guests with Texas rustic-style architecture on a grand scale. Its best example is the Lake Pavilion, a two-story rectangular, symmetrical stone structure built in this style and faced inside and out with locally available gray and cream-colored limestone. The Main House, also called Gerties House after White's wife, is a rectangular, single-story, end-gabled stone house in the rustic style with gray asphalt shingles. The Red Cottage, a square, one-story, front end-gabled wood-frame house with red-painted siding and a standing-seam metal roof, was built in 1926. It was one of the first buildings and was used to keep horses that were sold to the U.S. Army. Today, the ranch's 3500 acres and historic buildings reflect the tradition of Texas' grand homesteads.