SAN ANTONIO 



51S5 



SAN ANTONIO 



Description. San Antonio is unlike any other 

 city in America. It is spoken of as "the city 

 of a thousand charms," for it possesses a de- 

 lightful, healthful climate, beautiful residences, 

 parks and plazas, fine roads, facilities for bath- 

 ing and boating and an abundance of artesian 

 and mineral waters; to these are added all the 

 attractions that an army post can bring into 

 the social life of a community. Seventeen iron 

 bridges span the river, which winds gracefully 

 through the city and through Brackenridge 

 Park (250 acres), a popular feature of which is 

 the Lambert Bathing Beach. The park is a 

 woodland and contains an interesting zoological 

 garden ; it is the largest of the city's park reser- 

 vations. San Pedro Park, with famous springs, 

 is the site of the original Indian settlement of 

 San Antonio. Besides these, the city has a 

 number of smaller parks and green spots called 

 plazas. San Antonio has several attractive sub- 

 urbs, including West End, Alamo Heights and 

 Hot Sulphur Wells; the last named has me- 

 dicinal baths. Fort Sam Houston, on the out- 

 skirts of the city, is one of the largest army 

 posts in the Union; it covers almost 1,000 

 acres, and represents an investment of nearly 

 $5,000,000. 



Buildings. The Alamo, the most famous 

 structure, is held in reverence by all Texans 

 for the part it played in the Texan Revolution 

 (for illustration and description, see ALAMO). 

 Other buildings of historical interest are the 



THE SAN JOSE MISSION 

 The most famous of the old Spanish mission 

 buildings still standing In or near San Antonio. 

 Nearly all of them were built between 1720 and 

 1760. 



San Fernando Cathedral and the ruins of four 

 old Franciscan missions. San Antonio has a 

 magnificent city hall in the center of a plaza, 

 a massive courthouse, a Federal building, and 

 a convention 1. i is also a market house. 



There are more than fifty churches, the most 

 striking of these being the two cathedrals. Al- 

 thouph the city has no universities or colleges, 

 325 



it is an educational center of importance in the 

 Southwest, having fourteen preparatory schools, 

 forty-five private schools, thirty-four public 

 schools (three for negroes) and a Carnegie Li- 

 brary. San Antonio has long been a resort for 

 health seekers, because of its climate and min- 

 eral water. There are four public hospitals, 

 and a number of fine hotels, notably the Gunter 

 and Saint Anthony. 



Commerce and Industry. The city is the dis- 

 tributing point for a territory as large as the 

 state of Ohio, and is the retail center for 

 Southwest Texas and a large portion of Mexico. 

 It is located near a great live-stock country, 

 and in the mountainous district to the north- 

 west the raising of Angora goats is an impor- 

 tant industry; the greater supply of mohair 

 used in the United States comes from this sec- 

 tion. The territory around San Antonio is also 

 rich agriculturally, all kinds of fruit, vegetables 

 and forage crops and great quantities of cotton 

 and pecans being grown. The leading indus- 

 trial plants of the city are breweries, cotton 

 presses, broom factories, oil mills and refineries, 

 packing houses and cement works. There are 

 about 470 factories, their annual output being 

 estimated at over 836,600,000; the deposits of 

 oil and natural gas in the vicinity, combined 

 with fine shipping facilities, offer inducements 

 to further increase in manufacture. 



History. The present site of San Antonio 

 was occupied by settlers from Monterey in 

 1715, but the permanent settlement was made 

 in 1718 by Spaniards, some families from the 

 Canary Islands settling at that time on what 

 is now known as the Main Plaza. The place 

 (San Antonio de Bexar) was named in honor of 

 Saint Anthony (San Antonio) and the Duke de 

 Bexar. It was an important military station, 

 and the capital of Texas while it was a Spanish 

 and Mexican province. During the war be- 

 tween Mexico and Spain it was the scene of 

 fierce fighting and cruel bloodshed. In the war 

 for Texan independence eight battles were 

 fought in and near San Antonio. Here, in 1836, 

 occurred one of the most memorable and most 

 tragic conflicts in American history, when 179 

 brave Texans, including such famous frontiers- 

 men as Davy Crockett, James Bowie and Wil- 

 liam Travis, were massacred by the Mexicans 

 under Santa Anna, while defending the church 

 of the Alamo, which had been converted into a 

 fort. 



In 1840 there was more fierce fighting with 

 the Indians; in 1842 the city was again taken by 

 the Mexicans, and after another desperate bat- 



