219 Perez St (University Health System Campus)

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The University of San Antonio, Westmoorland College and finally Trinity University. Taken in 1927.

The University of San Antonio was a Methodist institution of higher education located in San Antonio, Texas, USA. It was founded as San Antonio Female College in 1894. The name was changed to Westmoorland College in 1918 and to the University of San Antonio in 1937. In 1942, the campus was taken over by Trinity University, which adopted the alumni of the University of San Antonio. Trinity, in turn, built a new campus and left the old University of San Antonio campus in 1952.

In February 1945 Trinity obtained an attractive new site of more than 100 acres on the north side of San Antonio. Construction was begun in 1950, and on May 13, 1952, the university officially moved to its new skyline campus overlooking the city. On this site, once a rock quarry and later intended for a public park, consultant William Wurster of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and architect O'Neil Ford designed a campus that gained international recognition.

Trinity University itself was originally three small antebellum Presbyterian schools in Texas—Ewing College (founded in 1848), Chapel Hill College (1849), and Larissa College (1855). After they failed during the Civil War, Trinity University opened on September 23, 1869, in Tehuacana. As early as 1888 the question of transferring the university to a large and more advantageous location was discussed, but it was not until 1902 that Trinity was moved to Waxahachie, where it remained for four decades. On February 25, 1942, the Synod of Texas voted to accept an invitation of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce to move Trinity University to the city of the Alamo.

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Mechler's Shell Service Station, Castroville Rd & 34th (1935)

From the last of the 19th century, several Belgian families and descendants founded the famous vegetable farms in western San Antonio. Men such as Van de Walle, van Daele, Persyn, and Baeten made year-round vegetable growing a successful business. The Belgians raised common crops and introduced new ones, includingcauliflower and kohlrabi. Today, harvests range from flowers to picante sauce. And the Belgians observed the “Kermess,” a national fall harvest festival held in mid-August—and in mid-November, if the harvest was good. They also celebrated Belgian Independence Day on July 21. The Belgium Inn, the Belgian Village, and the Flanders Inn, among several other places, provided the settings for many a gathering.

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Max Stiefel Residence in 1908
(225 W Cypress)

Atlee B Ayers, Architect:

Early in his career in San Antonio, Ayres designed the still-surviving Halff house (1908) and a villa for Col. George Washington Brackenridge that was later was torn down. He also designed the David J. and May Bock Woodward House, which currently functions as a club house for the Woman's Club of San Antonio and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Bexar County, Texas on February 16, 1996.[2] He was active in public and commercial buildings in South Texas towns, for example, designing the Seguin High School in 1914 (now the Mary B. Erskine School), the Starcke Furniture Co. building (1912), the Aumont Hotel (1916), Langner Hall at Texas Lutheran University, as well as the Blumberg and Breustedt mansions in Seguin.

In 1915, Ayres was made the State Architect of Texas. In 1924, he created a new partnership with his son, Robert M. Ayres. Many of the firm's works, including the Hogg house (1924), the Mannen house (1926), the Newton house (1927), and the Atkinson house (1928), which is now known as the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, were designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture, and are found throughout San Antonio and the surrounding area.[3] The firm was also adept in using other revival modes, including the Colonial Revival of the H. Lutcher Brown residence (1936) and the English Tudor of the Jesse Oppenheimer residence (1924).

Other commissions include the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Texas State Office Building, the Carothers Dormitory (1937) and the original Pharmacy Building, among others on the campus at the University of Texas at Austin. Ayres drew plans for courthouses in Kingsville, Alice, Refugio, Del Rio, and Brownsville.

He designed San Antonio's the Plaza Hotel (1927), its Federal Reserve Bank Building (1928), and its first skyscraper, the thirty-story Smith-Young Tower (1929), "still one of the city's most commanding works".[4] His firm helped design the exterior of the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium (1923) and the Administration Building at Randolph Air Force Base (1931), often affectionately referred to as the "Taj Mahal," and remodeled the historic Menger Hotel (1949–53

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David Donaldson Residence in the 1890s.
(Directly across from Woodlawn Lake)

Originally listed on E Virginia St, this property got an new address when someone decided that this Virginia was no where the original Virginia St on the east side. The road was changed to French Pl causing a lot of confusion with finding this house. I'm still not 100% sure this is the place due to the roof line, but it's the best candidate on the entire section of road.

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Welp that's it for today.
It was a productive week for this stuff, unfortunately that means my real-world work load must be effin-awful, and it is.

If you have not been here in a week or two, there's two pages of new photos that have been uploaded.

I lived in SA during the time they were building the tower. Was very interesting how they raised the rotating resturant up the tower.

I still like to eat there when I'm in town.

dp

[This message has been edited by oldvalleyrat (edited 10/4/2013 6:34p).]

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consultant William Wurster of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and architect O'Neil Ford designed a campus that gained international recognition.

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For not only did a great job with the campus, he also designed some amazing houses in AH and Terrell Hills.

Miraflores, or the Urrutia place went from Hildebrand down to Intercontinental Motors. I have not been able to exactly pinpoint where on the lot the house stood so I took a little liberty with the photo. Some places say the USAA building (SW Bell) replaced it, some places say it was where IM is. I thought the IM location made for a better shot so I took it that way.

I do hope they find a new use for the IM as it is a pretty nice building when all lit up and cleaned up.



From this newly acquired Miraflores photo it is still hard to tell where the home would have stood, though the distance of the road leading behind makes me think the gate was on Hildebrand.

Got some more coming. It was a nice day so I decided to skip working. I brought the wrong lens for my big-boy camera so the following 8 are taken with my phone... and not too bad.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 10/25/2013 5:25p).]

Brackenridge Park River Crossing, 1920

The original photo is actually from the other bank, but I took some liberties because it made for a better photo I thought.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 10/25/2013 5:25p).]

Eighteen year old George Dullnig and his two brothers, Christian and John, opened their wholesale and retail grocery business in 1864 on Commerce and Alamo Streets. This area was the traditional business and major retail center made up primarily of simple, one story buildings.

In the early 1880's, with business prospering, George hired Austin architect James Murphy to design a grand mercantile store. The three story building was an imposing land mark, and built for an estimated $10,000.

Now it is home to a hotel and some shops:
<a href="http://riverwalkvista.com/" rel="nofollow"> riverwalkvista.com/</a>

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 10/25/2013 5:36p).]

Alamo Street in 1922 with the Grand Opera House on the left.

La Villita was San Antonio's first neighborhood. It was originally a settlement of primitive huts for the Spanish soldiers stationed at the Mission San Antonio Valero (the Alamo). After a flood in 1819, brick, stone and adobe houses replaced the earlier structures. In 1836, La Villita was the site of General Santa Ana's cannon line in the Battle of the Alamo and a map from early that year showed the village to be of considerable size.

Late in the 19th century European immigrants from Germany and France moved into the area. These pioneers became San Antonio's business leaders, bankers, educators, and craftsmen. The cultural mix that occurred at this time is best illustrated by the variety of architectural styles reflected in La Villita's buildings. The architecture portrays the evolution of buildings from palisado to Victorian Houses.

The first part of the 20th century saw La Villita decline into a slum area. In 1939, as ground broke on the San Antonio River Walk development, city fathers led by Mayor Maury Maverick acted to preserve this colorful part of San Antonio's history.

http://lavillita.com

I'll have to upload the rest on Sunday.

<Gone Drinkin'>

this is like history porn

Houston Street and the Texas Theater, 1939. Wings, filmed in San Antonio, was premiered at this theater and went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture. The building fell in disrepair and torn down in 1983. The facade was salvaged, and incorpated into the modern office building built on the site.

In the newer photo, the light pillars with the mosaic bases and poles each have a glass top in the shape of a distinct and individual bell tower of one of the San Antonio Missions.

River ford at the now Navarro Street Bridge. The Bexar County Courthouse is in the distance.

San Antonio River looking north at Mitchell Street.

Mike Persia Chevrolet in 1961, (St Mary's St at Nueva)

Roma Plaza in 1940. Little Italy, anchored by San Francesco di Paola Church was once home to the cities Italian population. Top left is the site of the Sears building which now sits the Red Enchilada Central Public Library.

This provides a very interesting read on the Urrutia place:

http://www.texasescapes.com/SanAntonioTx/Dr-Aureliano-Urrutia-Tiled-Gates-San-Antonio-Texas.htm


And is the street Funston Pl named after this guy?

http://www.texasescapes.com/They-Shoe-Horses-Dont-They/FEMA-and-Frederick-Funston.htm

Thanks Darlin for the links!
Looks like I was right on the location of the Miraflores home after all and I definitely did not know that the gate in the photo I linked above is now located on the SAMA grounds.



[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 10/27/2013 7:42p).]

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And is the street Funston Pl named after this guy?

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I never thought about it, but Persing is just down the way as is Pickney, so it could well be possible.

Military Plaza in the 1870s

This is not a great "after" shot but I'm still limited in getting access to some vantage points.
This is the Commerce Street Bridge in the 1860s looking west.

Belvedere Motel Austin Hwy (1960s)

The Vogue Building in 1935.

The Vogue Building is a Renaissance Revival commercial landmark found at 600 Navarro Street on the corner with Houston Street in downtown San Antonio, Texas. Built circa 1895 for local businessman L. P. Peck as the Peck Building, it originally housed Peck's Furniture through the 1910s.

In the 1940s, an additional story was added and the building's 19th-century terra cotta ornamentations were hammered off and streamlined to fit modern trends. However, the rapid suburbanization of the 1950s and 1960s would sap away urban retailing from the downtowns of cities across America, and department stores such as the Vogue would move to the outlying malls or close entirely. By the mid 1950s, the Vogue had closed its doors, with its labelled merchandise becoming rare collectibles. By the the 1970s and 1980s, the vacant downtowns of the U.S. were struggling, and the empty Vogue Building suffered the ignominy of having its rich red brick and all its giant windows completely painted in dull gray. Since the disasterous doldrums of the 1980s, San Antonio has returned to redeveloping and preserving its historic and cultural heritage, though after tentative plans by entreprenuers to turn the building into downtown apartments fizzled, realty investors restored much of the building's exterior and refurbished the interior instead into stylish offices. The rehabilitated Vogue Building is believed to now be the tallest surviving wood-framed building in the city.

Riverwalk Construction on the eastern extension towards what is now Rivercenter Mall. This man made extension connected to the natural bend at the arched bridge on the far end of the modern photo.

Degener Residence in 1880. NW corner of Broadway and Travis.

Edward Degener had a long and distinguished career. Born in Brunswick, Germany, on 20 October 1809, Mr. Degener served as a member of the Anhalt-Dessau legislature and the first National Assembly at Frankfurt-am-Main in 1848, prior to emigrating to the United States. Arriving in Texas in 1850 he settled in Sisterdale as a farmer. When he arrived he purchased the original house built by Nicolaus Zink, the first building in the Latin community of Sisterdale. Zink, the surveyor of New Braunfels, left that town in an ox wagon on his way to Fredericksburg early in 1847. One night he camped at such a wonderful spot at the mouth of Sister Creek that he decided to stay there.

During the Civil War Degener, as a Union supporter, was arrested by Confederates for sedition. Although he pleaded innocent, he was found guilty and had to post a bond of $5,000. His sons Hilmar and Hugo died during the Battle of Nueces in October 1862. Later Degener, Edward Steves, and William Heuermann purchased land for the Treue der Union Monument. Degener had been on the advisory board of the Union Loyal League in Sisterdale. After the death of his two sons he and others began to leave Sisterdale. He went to San Antonio.

After the Civil War Mr. Degener served in Texas' constitutional conventions of 1866 and 1868-1869. One of his greatest efforts was to see universal suffrage in Texas. However, it would be many years before this happened.

After Texas was re-admitted to full statehood, Degener was elected to the Forty-first United States Congress, 31 March 1870-3 March 1871. He failed to secure re-election.

From 1872 to 1878 Edward Degener served on the San Antonio City Council.

Mr. Degener died on 11 September 1890 and is buried in Plot 6, Lot B of City Cemetery # 1. His wife Marie was born in 1815 and died in 1891 and is buried beside him.

http://texaslateiners.blogspot.com/2011/10/edward-degener.html

Rhodius House (1880) NE corner of Broadway (Avenue C) and Travis

The house was completed in 1874. Gustaph Freisleben was the architect; John Hermann Kampmann, the contractor.

Damn paper planes in my original shots again.

Oh well. That's enough for tonight. After getting used to working 12 to 14 hours a day this summer it has been VERY difficult to find myself not busy in the least bit. I'll probably have a ton more of these till it picks back up.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with all of 'em. (125 as of right now)