Lockhill-Selma R V a n c e B J e d a v a 0123Mi c n k A d s t e F o s r r n e a e 10 1535 B d R R 01 2 34Km W e a d d d b r i R c c rt o k 87 e c s k k b Ca 16 c R u E r d g Ja R ck d 410 k k e e e e Huebner Rd r r Evers Rd Olmo C B C a Balcones h n Creek de c ra Heights n on R e r d Callaghan Rd F Le 471 West Ave West Rd 10 m k so e Fredericksburg R ris e G r 410 B Fr C a Hillcrest Dr nde r ra e 16 R n r d 3478 d b In D Hilde u g Quill Dr Culebra Rd ra m H w d e i v d St Cloud Rd a St Mary's W Woodlawn Ave o r allaghan R allaghan Univ B C Culebra Rd WOODLAWN LAK Culebra R PARK Potranco Rd Southwest Research Zarzamora Creek op 410 L Institute e SAN Lo on W C Commerce N re e d k Gen Clements ANTO Southwest Mc Mullen Dr Commerce Buena Vista St Foundation 151 o for Research Guadalupe St z 16 Bra & Education R allaghan Old Hwy 90 W 36th St Marbach Rd C To Seaword To 410 Castroville Rd 90 G Gro r wden Frio City Rd o Zarzamora St w Mc Mullen Dr d Lackland e n ts Cupples Rd n To El Paso El To Air Force Base e 353 m per d e l Kelly Billy Mitchell R C Dr Rd a Division n n e Valley Hi Truem Kelly ta G Air Force Base 13 Quin R Southcross B a e v y Medina Base Rd Military D A E r W l l is o Milita n Blvd Ray Ellison Blvd PEARSALL d Med PARK Bynum io R C d o I t l r n y e A d e w i o l r 35 k 410 a a erset R F n P Pearsall Rd n Cre om S o t n e Zarzamora St a k Ave Commercial New Laredo Hwy d r Hunter Blvd u eon o 16 L C J d r Am Expressway South e e k teet Pan o P erset RSW Loop 410 om 16 To Laredo S To Jourdanton B To Johnson N l ew a N ek Schertz Rd n City o e Lo rth r d c C Perrin e R S o op o r elma Rd Sa la d o l R m e Beitel t t d e i d W e Creek San Antonio R 537 B To Austin To es - Int'l Airport h n 2696 c i do r 35 g r o e 1535 c a P N NE Loop 410 Windcrest Castle Hills 410 Jackson-Keller Rd 281 368 Olmos Broadway Eisenhauer Rd ay Creek w Alamo igh H y tin Basse Rd Heights s w New Braunfels Ave Braunfels New Au H Rittiman Rd h OLMOS c a JAMES Blanco Rd Blanco BASIN b Terrell z PARK Olmos PARK r Fresno St Hills u Park W y r Trinity r g Hildebrand Ave a H R Univ d d BRACKENRIDGE R uin PARK eg ve S WN LAKE Fort Sam Houston 35 Kirby K San Antonio San Pedro Ave Pedro San Museum C 410 o Mc Cullough Rd Cullough Mc l SAN of Art Joe & is Gembler Rd e u To Houston Harry Freeman m 90 TONIO The Alamo Coliseum R City Hall Houston St d sta St os 1346 z M L K e St Riverwalk Hackberry Frio Bra PARK Alamo Dome Martin Luther King Lord Rd WW White Rd 10 281 St 10 s to Roland Ave o City Rd li a Rigsby Ave Gevers St g Walters St 87 o N Steves Ave 353 Presa St SOUTH SIDE M Fair Ave LIONS PARK 13 i r s Flores St s G D Division Ave i oliad Rd o y n e ll Rd a V Salad Hot Wells Blvd n o cross Blvd a C N r Presa Ste ec e w P e SE Loop 410 k Pleasanton Rd Pleasanton San Antonio Br au WW nf River e Military Dr l 13 s W A h v i ACEQUIA e te 281 PARK Rd Brooks 410 mile Creek ix Stinson Air Force 37 Rosillio Pleasanton Rd Pleasanton S 0 Base 41 Commercial Ave Commercial Ashley Rd Municipal p Creek d oo Airport t L Eas South 281 410 Presa S 281 t To Pleasanton To Corpus Christi SAN ANTONIO PAST Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1490-1560) is believed to have been the first outsider to camp at the headwaters of today’s San Antonio River in the 1520s, about two dozen years after Columbus discovered the New World. The Spanish government claimed the territory until 1821. When the Spaniards came to the San Antonio River valley in the 1680s, the village and the river located at the site of present-day San Antonio was occupied by the Payaya Indians and known as Yanaguana, which translated into “refreshing waters” in their language. When a French settlement was rumored as being initiated on the Texas coast, the Spaniards, to protect their claim to Texas, instituted the mission system. Between 1690 and 1792, they established 36 missions in the state. As they progressed northward, they were confronted by Apache and Comanche Indians on horseback. The Mission San Antonio de Valero—named in honor of Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) and the Spanish viceroy, the Duke of Valero—was established in May 1718 and moved to its present site in 1724. When an earlier 1744 church building collapsed, a new one was started on the three-acre rectangular compound in 1758. Measuring 154 yards by 54 yards, it was framed by stone walls three feet thick and nine to 12 feet high. This was one of the five Spanish missions established by Franciscans in what is today San Antonio to Christianize and educate the native Indians, even if they already had a culture of their own. The mission that is today known as the Alamo was secularized in 1793. To keep Texas in Spanish hands, the King of Spain in 1723 approved a plan whereby Spanish settlers would inhabit the region and keep it for the Crown. Following a sea and land voyage lasting more than a year, the first group of weary travelers arrived at the presidio (a defense compound) of San Antonio on March 9, 1731. Totaling 55 or 56 persons, they had immigrated to Texas from the Spanish Canary Islands by order of King Philip V (1724-46). On July 2, 1731, they began to lay out La Villa de San Fernando by choosing a site on the east side of the Plaza de las Islas (now Main Plaza) for the church and a site on the west side, now Military Plaza, for the casa real (government building). On July 19, the captain of the presidio, Juan Antonio de Almazan (birth and death 11 12 MARMAC GUIDE TO SAN ANTONIO dates unknown), read to the settlers the decree of the viceroy naming them and their descendants persons of nobility. On August 1, when the new city council met to elect an alcalde, akin to today’s mayor, this was probably the first election held in Texas. La Villa de San Fernando was renamed after the Texas Revolution to San Antonio de Bexar in 1837. “San Antonio was to Texas what Boston and Philadelphia, combined, were to the original Thirteen Colonies,” observes Sandy Sheehy in her book titled Texas Big Rich. In 1772 San Antonio became Spain’s capital in Texas, and the Spanish Governor’s Palace became the residence of its official repre- sentative. It remained such until 1827, when the capital was transferred to Saltillo, Mexico. Manuel Ignacio Rodriguez built the city’s first two-story building in 1803; it took 42 years before the first three-story structure, The Plaza House, was built. In 1883, construction began on the J. H. Kaupmann building, San Antonio’s first four-story building that also had the first elevator. Victor Blanco (birth and death dates unknown), a mulatto, a Mexican official, and a Texas legislator, became the first and only African-American mayor of San Antonio in 1809. Following an 11-year struggle against Spain, Mexico won its free- dom in 1821, when Augustin de Iturbe (d. 1824), a Spanish general turned rebel, became emperor of the new nation. Under him, American colonists could settle in Texas, provided they took the oath of Catholic faith. San Antonio de Bexar came under Mexican rule. Mexico was bankrupt and unable to govern itself. It had 13 presi- dents—from liberal-leaning Federalists to dictatorial Centralists—all struggling for power, during its first 15 years of independence. “Unsuccessful in escaping debt through traditional business pursuits, Moses Austin (1761-1821) developed a plan in 1819 for settling an American colony in Spanish Texas,” notes the Texas State Historical Association, but was rebuffed by Gov. Antonio Maria Martinez (d. 1823), the last governor of Spanish Texas, until Austin met, on Military Plaza, the self-proclaimed Baron de Bastrop (1759-1827), an early acquaintance from New Orleans. The Old Three Hundred, Stephen F.