[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nzFQUK]583-Central Christian Church, 1927 (Romana Plaza) by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Central Christian Church, Romana Plaza

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[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nicbfX]582-City Brewery by Paul Bubel, on Flickr


City Brewery, Home of Texas Pride.

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The site owned and operated by the Pearl Brewing Company was originally known as both the J. B. Behloradsky Brewery (1881–1883) and the City Brewery. Privately held and poorly run for two years, the City Brewery was purchased by an investment group in 1883. The investment group was composed of local businessmen and several moguls already involved in brewing at San Antonio's other major brewery, the Lone Star Brewing Company. Together they formed the San Antonio Brewing Company.

Pearl Beer was formulated and first brewed in Bremen, Germany, by the Kaiser–Beck Brewery, which produces Beck's beer. Pearl beer's name came from Kaiser–Beck Brewery's brewmaster, who thought the foamy bubbles in a freshly poured glass of the brew resembled sparkling pearls.[6] In Germany, the brew was called "Perle", which is the German word for pearl. When brought to the United States, the spelling was changed to the English version: pearl. In 1886, the first bottles and wooden kegs of American Pearl beer rolled off the line and into local tap rooms.

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[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nicfBk]581-Boy Scout Training Center, 2519 Broadway by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Boy Scouts Home, 1927.



This structure, donated by the Joske family, stood on Broadway till 1969. At some point later the building was finally razed and the condos built. Information about this building is scarce. Harrumph.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nzGjoG]580-Breckenridge Buffalo (1910) by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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Buffalo at Breckenridge

The City Parks Commissioner, Ludwig Mahncke, was given the task of improving the land, and he lost no time. As a close friend of Brackenridge, he enjoyed the donor's full cooperation and support. Mahncke designed a series of drives totaling seven miles that wound through the trees and along the river, converging at the north end of the park. By 1902, there was a fenced deer preserve and enclosures for buffalo and elk. Animals were pastured along River Avenue near today's Lions Field, and were fed with hay raised in an adjacent pasture. Though successful and popular, Mahncke resigned in 1906 after a political dispute with Mayor Bryan Callaghan, a bitter enemy of his friend George Brackenridge. Mahncke died within several months and was honored by his friends who dedicated a monument to him that stands today in Mahncke Park.

A great history of the park can be found here:
Scroll to the bottom.

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[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 5/11/2014 7:36p).]

I've got a ton more to finally get to over the next week or so. But I spent a good part of the day trying to get my photoshop back from the dead and I'm tired. And flickr is pissing me off.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/history-culture/slideshow/S-A-Back-in-the-Day-May-1953-61751/photo-4581621.php

Do you think that house is 731 Cottonwood Ave? I checked it on Google maps and it has a similar structure with a garage in the back (you just have to move to the right to see it).

I think you may be correct.

Page 11, aerial photo of North Star Mall, looking westward. The grocery store on the west end of the original structure was not an HEB, it was definitely a Handy Andy. HEBs in early 1960's San Antonio were relatively 'low rent' and not near the top of the line store they are currently.

The Cinema I & II movie complex originally opened to the south of the complex, with doors to the parking lot. Sound of Music played there for almost a year and a half in ~1964-1965, and they had printed tickets for each seat. First new indoor theater built in San Antonio in a long time.

Yep. I remember a time when there were stores other than HEB.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nAutT2]584-Bun N Barrel (1952) by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Bun n Barrel, 1950s

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nAuEj1]589-Jefferson, 1942 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Jefferson High School, 1942

Thomas Jefferson was built in 1931-32 with the assistance of local artisans and craftsmen. In 1929 only two high schools existed in San Antonio, Brackenridge High on the South Side of town and Main Avenue High on the North. While Brackenridge was somewhat new at that time, the Main Avenue High (Fox Tech) campus was showing its age and due to population growth in the northern areas of town, it was also extremely crowded.

The School Board and Phelps and DeWees, project supervising architects, recommended the architectural firm of Adams and Adams to design the building. Created in a Spanish Moorish design to reflect its proximity to The Old Spanish Trail, it was to be an expensive building costing more that $1,250,000. School District officials were criticized for this extravagance during the Depression Era when 100’s were waiting in bread lines and families were going hungry.

An Italian immigrant, Hannibal Pianta [see Pinata Art] and his son Eugene did the elaborate carvings that create the columns of the entryway at the main entrance. The ornamental concrete was made in sections using concrete molds located at the Pianta Company on Fredericksburg Road and then transported to the site. The Pianta family (who we will see in some later photos on here) also did the ornamental work at the Aztec theater and their grandfather contributed to the elaborate stonework at the Texas State Capitol.

In 1937, Jefferson High became nationally known when it was chosen out of 1,500 schools as the most outstanding high school in America. The following year, March 1938, Life Magazine featured the story of Jefferson High School in pictures. Twentieth Century Fox filmed two movies on the Jefferson campus: “High School” starring Jane Withers in 1938 and its sequel “Texas Girl” also with Jane Withers in 1939. On March 14, 1938, Paramount Pictures began making a special newsreel of Jefferson as America’s most modern high school. By the close of 1938, Jefferson had appeared in Life, The American Weekly and several European publications and in 1947 it also appeared in National Geographic magazine.


[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 5/14/2014 12:35p).]

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/niZRHU]590-JFK on Broadway by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

JFK on Broadway the day before his assassination.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/niZSVS]591-Madison Square by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Madison Square

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/niZR9W]595-Physicians' and Surgeons' Hospital San Antonio by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Physicians and Surgeon's Hospital

Romana Plaza

In 1903, 30 physician members of the Bexar County Medical Society joined with more than two dozen businessmen and professionals to organize the San Antonio Associated Charities. The Associated Charities then began construction of a four-story hospital on Dallas Street, the Physicians' and Surgeons' Hospital. As the community grew, so did the need for healthcare services, and the Dallas Street facility expanded and eventually became the far-reaching Baptist Health System.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nAunU8]597-Turner Hall by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Turner Hall, the Most Popular of all German Halls San Antonio, TX
(1875)

The Turnverein, combined with the Casino Club and Beethoven's Mannerchor comprised the bulk of the local German communities social center. Though from the outside the German community looked homogenous it was indeed a non-unified country comprised of various customs, culture and dialects. The clubs were the same. Protestants, Catholics, Jews and secular free-thinkers. It was particularly these free-thinkers that developed the local clubs especially the verein where even the architecture includes various religious iconography such as the Star of David in the upper windows and Crosses in the stonework. This particular building also house a bowling alley in the basement.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 5/14/2014 10:18a).]

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nAuAAE]598-Woodsman Hospital by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Woodmen Of The World War Memorial Hospital San Antonio
(New Braunfels Ave at Brees Blvd)

Woodmen of the World Hospital (a fraternal organization), built in 1929 to provide a universal church and sanctuary for the patients of the Woodmen War Memorial Hospital (located where the Tanglewood Apartments now stand). From the 1930s until its closing in 1956, the hospital provided members with the most up-to-date treatment for tuberculosis, and patients could attend non-denominational church services in the chapel.

The Sunset Ridge Church of Christ purchased the chapel in 1959, and the main church building, designed to match the Chapel, was built in 1965. The hospital was torn down in the early 60s to make way for the apartment complex.

Where is Turner Hall?

[This message has been edited by BlackLab (edited 5/14/2014 10:58a).]

It's now the Bonham Exchange. A gay nightclub just north of the Alamo. ( on Bonham st)

Free-thtinkers.

A loaded term these days, yes, kind of. It's the best available though. It was a weird time. Little "c" commies, atheists, libertines, diests and anarchists.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 5/14/2014 9:57p).]

Bubel:

Thanks for posting that about the Woodsmen Hospital. Since I have looked at some old plats of that area, I was wondering about that. I had also wondered why the church looked so much older than the rest of the neighborhood. The church is also in a peculiar location. They are so far off the beaten path, I am surprised anyone knows about it. This answers a lot of questions I had.

If I recall from the old plats, the hospital property extended all the way to New Braunfels Ave. to the west and Eisenhauer (formerly Klaus Road) to the north. Do you happen to know which way the hospital building was oriented?

The small subdivision on the SE corner of New Braunfels and Eisenhauer was developed by H.B. Zachry company. The biggest lot in that subdivision is still owned by someone named Zachry

From what I gather the hospital was oriented length wise north south. So, the photo above would be the western exposure. I had never heard of this place until I stumbled upon the postcard while trying to find info on the boy scout building.

BQ - the West end North Star Mall store was an HEB. It was store number 14. It closed during the mall expansion and I expect higher rent. HEB eventually bought the closed up Piggly Wiggly on San Pedro and Oblate, and they used the same store number when it opened. It remains open.

The Handy Andy at Central Park Mall eventually opened and was one of the finest grocery stores in the state. It had the store upstairs and the warehouse and prep rooms in the basement.

You are right - Handy Andy was king of San Antonio grocers. Their demise came about with Charles Becker running for mayor, a huge expansion into Houston and Mr. Butt getting serious.

We also had Piggly Wiggly, Food City, Deluxe Markets and Centeno stores in town at that time.

End of derail.

Gig 'em Aggies!

bubel - I remember going into the Boy Scout store a long time ago for patches and uniforms. In my mind it was the building at Lyons Field. Obviously not, but some of the architecture was similar. Thanks for clearing it up and finding out where it actually was.



Gig 'em Aggies!

No problem. That location was hard to find for me, and I only could find one reference to an address, so you could very well be right.

I'll keep an eye out for a possible correction.

A little bit on the street names around Alamo Heights.

http://www.myalamoheights.com/Yesteryear/Street-Names/

Great link Burdizzo.

Recovering Kampmann

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Kampmann’s story started to unfold. I found that a politically-forced emigration caused him to leave a promising career in Germany, arriving penniless because a friend had absconded with what little money he had. Having extensive skills and having worked on the famous Cathedral of Cologne, he started humbly in the New World as a stone mason with a pick and trowel. He soon bought a quarry to cut, to haul, and to build in the local creamy white limestone for homes that brought a German vernacular style to a city of adobe Spanish design.

He engaged in a business partnership with another German architect sharing commissions for a land office and a courthouse, and eventually became a prolific builder, credited in the local press with having built one-third of the entire city of San Antonio.

“High tech” for his period, Kampmann introduced the first elevator and electric bell in what was then the tallest building in the City, his legacy Lockwood/Kampmann Bank building, which, though dilapidated, still exists on West Commerce and Solidad Street.

His involvement in infrastructure advancements included development of the first utility, the San Antonio Gas Supply Co., and the first water works, the Metropolitan Water Co. He was the first to use steam power in manufacturing.

His transportation innovations included the introduction of the first trolley system, and he worked indefatigably over many years on a committee which eventually succeeded to bring in the first railroad. He rose to position of Major in the Civil War where he both fought and commanded army supply trains while running a manufacturing operation to make hats and coats for the Confederate States Army. He served the local offices of councilman and alderman, and even as a volunteer fireman.

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I ran across this a couple of hours ago, and several of his buildings, including his home, have been included in this thread.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nZ2AJT]599-Electric Park 1906 W Evergreen and Nixon by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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(1906) -Immediately south of San Pedro Park

Most Electric Parks were owned by electric companies and trolley companies, which often had one or more lines that transported workers and shoppers between the downtown areas of the various cities and residential and industrial areas. (After 1900, interurban electric rail lines began carrying commuters from one city to another). Originally, the trolleys and interurban lines would either operate at a reduced level on weekends or be completely idle. To generate weekend traffic, the companies eventually created new destinations, generally at the end of their lines, for the public to attend on the weekends, whether it be a picnic park or (later) an amusement park. Regardless of the type of park, the destinations owned by the local electric company or accessed by the electric trolley were commonly called electric parks.

The park site would a couple of years later become the location of one of the cities first "minor league" baseball fields.

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[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 6/24/2014 11:22p).]

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nGxcEo]600-Hilton Home (1931) by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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Daisy and Violet Hilton were born in Brighton, East Sussex, England on February 5, 1908 to a young, unwed barmaid, Kate Skinner. At the age of two weeks, the twins were "adopted" by Mary Hilton, their mother's landlady who was also their midwife. The sisters were pygopagus twins - conjoined at the hips and buttocks. They shared blood circulation and were fused at the pelvis but shared no major organs. Soon after acquiring the twins, Mrs. Hilton put them on exhibition. They were managed by Ike Rose of Rose's Royal Midgets fame and exhibited alongside Rosa and Josefa Blazek, probably the first time in history that two sets of Siamese twins were ever shown together. Daisy and Violet were later taken on an Australian tour with Mary Hilton, her husband Henry, and their daughter Edith. While in Australia, Edith married Myer Myers, a carnival balloon salesman.



When Mary Hilton died, she willed the twins to Edith and Myer. The Myers relocated to the United States and used part of the twins' fortune to built a luxurious, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home in San Antonio, Texas. Daisy and Violet spent the majority of the 1920s touring the United States on vaudeville circuits, playing clarinet and saxophone, and singing and dancing. The sisters were a national sensation, counting among their friends a young Bob Hope and Harry Houdini, who allegedly taught them the trick of mentally separating from one another.



By this time, it seems, the Hilton sisters had already become lightning rods for scandal. Seeking friendship outside the abusive Myers home, the twins befriended their advance agent, William "Bill" Oliver. Although the twins claim in their autobiography that their relationship with Oliver was strictly platonic, biographer Dean Jensen believes the twins were two of many mistresses of the smooth-talking promoter and that he slept with both of them many times. In any case, Oliver's wife Mildred accused him of "spending too much time" with them and filed for divorce, and attempted to sue the twins for $250,000. On the orders of Mrs. Myers, Daisy and Violet asked for the help of a San Antonio lawyer, Martin J. Arnold. Arnold inquired as to why the sisters, who were over 21 years old and legal adults, remained bound to Mr. and Mrs. Myers, and he was shocked to learn of their situation. He took on the twins' case in January of 1931, helping them file suit against the Myers to break their contract and legally separate from their abusive guardians. Judge W.W. McCrory decided the case in April, awarding the equivalent of nearly $80,000 to the sisters and allowing the Myers to keep their San Antonio home.



Newly emancipated, Daisy and Violet became citizens of the United States and returned to the only life they'd ever known: showbusiness. In 1932 they appeared in the movie Freaks, which dared to pose the question of whether or not conjoined twins can have a love life. Over the coming decade, it would become quite clear that the answer was yes. Violet, the more outgoing of the pair, had a string of celebrity boyfriends, including the musician Blue Steel, boxer Harry Mason, and guitarist Don Galvan, before becoming engaged in 1933 to bandleader Maurice L. Lambert. She and Lambert began a nationwide search for a clerk who would issue them a marriage license. Each of her requests - in 21 states - was denied on moral grounds, and lawyers were brought in to argue on Violet's behalf. One New York clerk refused to issue the license because Daisy was not also engaged. Though briefly engaged to Jack Lewis, another bandleader, she deemed him too shy for marriage to a Siamese twin.



Unable to get married, Violet and Maurice split. Two years later, however, the twins' agent Terry Turner announced that he could arrange for Violet to marry after all - she only needed a groom. Chosen for the role was Violet's dance partner and a longtime confidant of the twins, James Walker "Jim" Moore. The wedding, such as it was, took place on July 18, 1936, at the Texas Centennial Exposition on the 50-yard line of the Cotton Bowl. Daisy, too, got to experience wedded bliss when she married vaudeville dancer Harold Estep, stage name Buddy Sawyer, at Elmira, New York, on September 17, 1941. Their marriage lasted two weeks.



After the decline of vaudeville, the twins, like countless others, turned to Hollywood. In 1950 the sisters appeared in the film Chained for Life as Dorothy and Vivian Hamilton, vaudeville singers. In the film, Vivian takes a dislike to the musician who is courting her sister. Dorothy, on the other hand, is so smitten that she begs doctors to separate her from her twin so that she might marry. In the end, Vivian shoots and kills Dorothy's beau with a pistol grabbed from a sharpshooter's prop cart. The judge - and the audience - are left to decide whether to send innocent Dorothy to jail, or let guilty Vivian walk free.



Chained for Life was a colossal failure, banned in many places due to its lurid subject matter. Having spent nearly all of their fortune and struggling to survive, the twins opened a hotdog stand, The Hilton Sisters' Snack Bar, in Miami, in 1955, but the business failed in part due to the objections of fellow vendors who didn't like a pair of freaks stealing their business. Short on cash, having been unable to manage their showbusiness earnings responsibly, the sisters decided to bank on the cult revival of their first movie, Freaks. In 1962 they arranged to appear at a drive-in movie theater in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here they were abandoned, penniless, by an unscrupulous agent. A kind grocery store manager, Charles Reid, hired the sisters to work in his shop, where they checked and bagged groceries. Reid bought work dresses for the twins, since all they had were show clothes. On January 6, 1969, after battling the Hong Kong flu for some weeks, the twins failed to report for work. Their boss called the police and the sisters were found dead in their small trailer. Daisy died first and forensic evidence suggested that Violet lived for two to four days afterwards, although this is highly questionable since the twins shared circulation and she would have bled to death much sooner. Having no surviving family, the twins were laid to rest beside a Vietnam soldier named Troy Thompson, the son of an acquaintance. At death, the twins owned but $1,000, a far cry from their formerly vast fortune. Those who met them late in life describe the quintessential "fallen stars": the twins spoke and dressed as they had in their heyday, well into the 1960s.



[url]phreeque.tripod.com/hilton_sisters.html[/url]

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[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nZ2Ajp]601-Miraflores Gate (1925) by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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(1925)

Dr. Urrutia was Dr. Aureliano Urrutia, who died in his sleep in 1975, at the age of 103. After having five wives, the fifth about 40 years younger than he, 18 children, after practicing medicine for 81 years, inventing medical procedures still used today, being one of the first surgeons to separate Siamese twins - but that's not the interesting part.



Dr. Urrutia was a Mexican political exile when he arrived in

San Antonio in 1915, in his early forties.



He'd been born into full-blood Indian poverty in 1872 in Xochimilco, the town of the floating gardens, a little south of Mexico City. By 1895 Urrutia had graduated at the top of his medical school class, sponsored by the president of Mexico himself, Porfirio Diaz. Diaz named him his personal physician at the age of 22.



Presidente Diaz got in trouble in 1910 and stepped down with his head still attached, his fortune intact - he'd been ruling for 30, 35 years if I remember right - but after Diaz, from 1910 to 1920, Mexico wasn't ruled as much as it was repeatedly raped. This was the age of bloody insurrections, clumsy intrigue, peasant revolutions, open warfare, dust and blood. Orozco, Villa, Zapata. More than once, the course of Mexico's history swiveled back and forth on the murderous impulses of drunk corporals and illiterate machine-gunners.



Diaz was replaced by a vegetarian idealist Francisco Madero in 1910, but Madero had unleashed forces that he couldn't control. He lasted about thirteen months. Madero's brother/advisor was brutally murdered, a messy killing with a sword thrust into his good eye for a first inning. Then Madero himself was openly betrayed and shot in the neck. This made way for possibly the worst president Mexico ever had, which is really saying something: a drunken military gangster named Victoriano Huerta.



Well, guess who had operated on Huerta's eyes. Guess who'd been implicated in the murder of Madero. Guess who was made Huerta's close advisor and trusted Minister of Government in 1912, and was supposedly more or less acting president. Guess who! None other than the guy who lived across the street from the old Earl Able's? Doctor Urrutia.



The one gate on Hildebrand and this one on Broadway have been taken apart and carted off to SAMA. All that remains of his medical empire is a strange, off-limits garden behind that early 60's-style office building across the street.



www.texasescapes.com/SanAntonioTx/Dr-Aureliano-Urrutia-Ti...

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[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 6/24/2014 11:25p).]

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nYURbj]602-Painta Studio - Fredericksburg Rd by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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The more I look at this building the less sure it might be it, though the concrete ornamentation at the top sure could be some of his work. This has been frustrating to recreate the information I once had available, but can no longer locate. Painta, as I remember the name, was prolific in cast concrete ornamentation in San Antonio at the beginning of the last century. You can find his work in such places as the Jordan Ford Dealership shown above and the Jefferson High School on the near west side."]The more I look at this building the less sure it might be it, though the concrete ornamentation at the top sure could be some of his work.

This has been frustrating to recreate the information I once had available, but can no longer locate. Painta, as I remember the name, was prolific in cast concrete ornamentation in San Antonio at the beginning of the last century. You can find his work in such places as the Jordan Ford Dealership shown above and the Jefferson High School on the near west side.

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[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/nYJoV2]603-Painta Studio Carving for 901 Houston St by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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This has been frustrating to recreate the information I once had available, but can no longer locate. Painta, as I remember the name, was prolific in cast concrete ornamentation in San Antonio at the beginning of the last century. You can find his work in such places as the Jordan Ford Dealership shown above and the Jefferson High School on the near west side. His studio was on Fredericksburg Rd, and I think still standing."]This has been frustrating to recreate the information I once had available, but can no longer locate. Painta, as I remember the name, was prolific in cast concrete ornamentation in San Antonio at the beginning of the last century. You can find his work in such places as the Jordan Ford Dealership shown above and the Jefferson High School on the near west side. His studio was on Fredericksburg Rd, and I think still standing.

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[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/o1NY1x]604-Ize Box - Alamo Heights by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

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The Ize Box on Broadway. From what I can gather there were two locations, and the blue sign is from that other store. (It is now located at the rear entrance to Tycoon Flats) Information is limited and I really have nothing other to add. Bah."

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[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 6/27/2014 3:30p).]