Remember the Alamo?

This past week we drove down to San Antonio. I love that city. There is so much history there and it spans decades! It was originally part of Spain and in the 1700's, they sent missionaries out here to try and convert the Indians. 

One such mission was San Antonio de Valero, aka The Alamo. When you see it, it's hard to remember that it was once a Catholic mission. In 1793, it was secularized and then abandoned. In 1803, it housed soldiers. As we all know, in 1836, it was occupied by the Texians who were fighting for their independence from Mexico. General Sam Houston told those guys to get out of there but William Barrett Travis didn't want to. He drew his famous line in the sand. Everyone that was with him perished.

After almost 300 years of just being able to wander in the mission and look around, the city has decided that it should have a proper museum. When I was trying to book tickets (they are free if you just want to look in the chapel), the options ranged from free to $45 a person. The museum itself is still under construction but as they finish various parts, you get a glimpse of what looks to be something cool.

The construction basically takes up the whole Alamo Plaza street. It blocks off the main entrance to the Menger Hotel, which was the big reason for the visit.

This is the original section of the hotel. It was started back in the 1850's as a boarding house for the guests of William Menger. He owned a brewery and, I guess, after a few too many, they needed a place to sleep. Since then it has grown, expanded, etc. It's very cool old hotel and it's supposedly haunted.

We didn't stay in the "Victorian" (aka original) side of the hotel. I didn't know you had to ask for that but next time, I will! That must be where the ghosts are because we didn't see any. We had a corner room that was rather big plus a balcony where you could sit and sip coffee.

The view of the pool from our balcony. The weather down here was unbelievable. In July, it was less than 100 degrees! We were able to take advantage of the pool and swim after a day of walking around the city.

The hallway to our room. Can anyone say redrum!

The Menger Bar. This is supposedly where Teddy Roosevelt recruited the men for his Rough Riders (and I don't mean the Frisco baseball team!). It's here that people have seen his ghost. He must have been off that day because we didn't see him. The drinks were good though. It's a cool little bar. Very small and fashioned after the Lords of London Club (which I assume is a fancy club in London).

This is the lobby of the original part of the hotel. It's beautiful!

This is a photo of that same lobby taken in 1930. It looks exactly the same.

But, San Antonio isn't just about the Alamo and the Menger Hotel. There's tons of other stuff in the city. Again, we got super lucky with the weather and we were able to walk all over downtown. This is the Spanish Governor's Palace. It was completed in 1749 and was where the captain of the presidio worked and lived.

Remember that Texas originally belonged to Spain so the coat of arms over the door is that of King Ferdinand VI of Spain. It's kind of hard to see all the detail but it is several hundred years old and it is out in the elements.

The original building consisted of this one room. There was a bed and a desk. Over the years it was expanded to include ten rooms. Can you believe this historic building was still in use in the 1920's? It housed shops.

This is a panoramic shot of the garden. There's a fountain in the middle and then a well off to the right. It's hard to believe this sits right in the middle of downtown amidst tons of construction. The building was purchased by the city in the 1930's and then restored. It's $5 to go in and totally worth it.

Not far from the Spanish Governor's Palace is this amazing church. The San Fernando Cathedral was started in 1731 by a group of families from the Canary Islands at the invitation of King Philip of Spain. It's the oldest continually functioning religious community in Texas. It's also the oldest standing church building in Texas. It was completed in 1750. Did you know that when Texas was a territory of both Spain and Mexico you had to be Catholic to settle here?

Right inside the door on the left (if you're facing the church) are the remains of the heroes of the Alamo. After the battle of the Alamo, Santa Ana ordered that the bodies be stacked, burned and thrown into a mass grave. I'm not sure how the ashes were recovered and interred here. Some doubt that it's the heroes but I like to think they are here in the church versus just gone.

The inside of the church is beautiful. In the front to the left is a baptismal font that was a give of King Charles III. He reigned during the 1750's. As we were looking around, it started pouring rain outside. We hung out here for about 45 minutes until it stopped.

Our next stop was the Bexar County Courthouse. It was built in 1896 and is the oldest, largest county courthouse still in use. You can go in, you just have to go through the metal detector. 

Inside down the hall to the right is the Bexar Heritage Center, which is a small museum of the history of Bexar county. It's free and it's cool. There are portraits of famous people that come to life and tell you about their part in the history of the county. One was of Matilda Stevens who took over as sheriff after her husband died in 1928. It's a neat little exhibit and well worth a visit.

This is the O. Henry House. The writer O. Henry was actually William Sydney Porter. He worked at a bank in Austin and was accused of embezzlement. He moved to San Antonio and rented this place for $6 from 1883 - 1885. The house was built by a German settler names John Kush in 1855 and was originally located at 904 S. Pressa St. It was saved from demolition in 1959 and moved to its current location in 1998. The windows are boarded up so you can't see in anymore.

Our next stop (directly across the street from the O. Henry House) was Casa Navarro. The house belonged to Jose Antonio Navarro who was one of two native born Texans to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence. He bought the land for this site in 1832 and proceeded to erect the buildings over the next 20 year. The building above was the primary living quarters.

The site of this property is in an old San Antonio neighborhood called Loredito. This particular building was the part of Navarro's estate and used as a commercial building. It was a grocery store.

This photo shows the same building back in 1930. The store is La Blanca Grocery and the man in the photo is Navarro's grandson. 

We spent some time walking around on the Riverwalk. We also took the river cruise. In 1921, the San Antonio River flooded and 51 people lost their lives. As part of a solution, the River Walk was designed and constructed in 1939 as part of the WPA program under Franklin Roosevelt. Robert Hugman was the guy that designed it. His building, one of the first businesses on the Riverwalk, is behind me.

Along the cruise we saw all kinds of stuff. This is the Tower Life Building, a 31 story building completed in 1929. Until 1968, it was the tallest building in San Antonio. According to our boat captain, the cost to build was $3M. But as it was the start of the Great Depression, its selling price was only $300K. Quite the mark down. The plan is by 2026 to turn it into apartments.

This is the Hilton Palacio Del Rio. This 485 room hotel was built in 7 months in time for the 1968 World's Fair. It's in the Guinness Book of World Records for the fastest hotel built. The rooms were assembled seven miles away and then basically stacked like blocks. Amazing.

Another thing we did was visit the San Antonio Museum of Art. It's in the old Lone Star Brewery. It was built between 1895 and 1900. There were several out buildings for coopers and blacksmiths. In 1920, prohibition was implemented and the building housed the Lone Star Cotton Mills. The 18th amendment was repealed in 1933 but the company never brewed beer here again. In the 1970's, the building was sold to the San Antonio Museum of Art. In 1972, the main building along with these out buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

We were only in San Antonio for less than 48 hours but we had so much fun that we'll have to go back.