Author: Char Miller Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 1625110510 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 258
Book Description
This is the first general history of San Antonio, Texas, the seventh largest city in the nation. Its past is complex and ranges across 300 years, from the community’s origins as a tiny Spanish frontier town to its contemporary status as a vital American mega-city. Site of some of the most violent struggles between warring empires and people—historians believe San Antonio may be the most fought-over city in U.S. history—it is perhaps most celebrated for the iconic 1836 Battle of the Alamo. The city is also home to four beautifully restored Spanish missions, which in 2015 UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site and have become integral to San Antonio’s robust tourist economy along with the fabled River Walk. This study weaves together a series of environmental, social, political, and cultural pressures that have shaped life in the Alamo City over the last three centuries. Residents have long fought to protect and utilize water and other resources even as they have struggled to achieve equal rights and build a more open and democratic society. Activists from all sectors of this multicultural city have believed deeply in its promise even though they have had to push hard to secure and expand its potential. Their efforts were every bit as intense in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as they have been in the twenty-first. Written for a general audience, but with a scholarly attention to detail and nuance, San Antonio: A Tricentennial History immerses readers in the city’s fascinating and fraught past.
Author: Brent Fortenberry Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 1623499127 Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 457
Book Description
The rich, multicultural heritage of San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country provide the backdrop for this first comprehensive guide to the culturally significant vernacular buildings of this diverse and historic region: structures designed and constructed by the people who used them rather than by professional architects or builders. A valuable, easy-to-use resource for heritage travelers, historic preservationists, and local historians, A Field Guide to the Vernacular Buildings of the San Antonio Area pairs incisive interpretive essays with detailed building descriptions, photographs, and architectural renderings. Featuring contributions from noted architectural historians and preservationists including Ken Hafertepe, Lewis Fisher, Maria Pfeiffer, and Sarah Z. Gould, this handy, generously illustrated guide will not only provide context and insight for understanding the importance of these buildings but will also engage readers with the challenges of preserving our cultural heritage as represented in the built environment. Professional and avocational preservationists, along with interested travelers and general readers, will appreciate the thorough discussion and analysis of such well-known sites as the San Antonio Riverwalk, the San Antonio missions, and the public buildings of the historic Westside district. Reaching beyond the immediate vicinity of San Antonio, the book also offers expert commentary on the German settlements in Central Texas and east of San Antonio, providing an inclusive and inviting survey of how settlers of various origins placed their unique imprints on Texas.
Author: Thomas S. Bremer Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press ISBN: 0807876550 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 222
Book Description
More than a million tourists visit religious landmarks in San Antonio, Texas, each year, observing and sometimes participating in religious activities there. The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park--managed by the National Park Service, in cooperation with the Catholic Church--is one of hundreds of religious places in America and around the world where tourists have become a familiar presence. In Blessed with Tourists, Thomas S. Bremer explores the intersection of tourism and commerce with religion in American, using the missions and other San Antonio sites as prime examples. Bremer recounts the history of San Antonio, from its Native American roots to its development as a religious center with the growth of the Spanish colonial missions, to the modern transformation of San Antonio into a tourist destination. Employing both ethnographic and historical approaches, Bremer examines the concepts of place, identity, aesthetics, and commercialization, demonstrating numerous ways that modern market forces affect religious communities. By identifying important connections between religious and touristic practices, Bremer establishes San Antonio as a distinctive source for anyone seeking to understand the interplay between the religious and the secular, the traditional and the modern.
Author: San Antonio Express-News Publisher: Trinity University Press ISBN: 1595347569 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 1620
Book Description
On Sept. 27, 1865, the San Antonio Express-News made its debut. And from the beginning, there was plenty to write about. The Civil War had just concluded, and it was only twenty-nine years after the fall of the Alamo. The Chisholm Trail, the high road of the Cattle Kingdom, began in San Antonio, which was the largest and among the most diverse cities in Texas. Spanish, German, and English were commonly spoken. The politics were lively and sometimes divisive, as the city was full of Unionist sympathizers in a state that was an anchor of the Confederacy. Today, 150 years later, San Antonio is America’s fastest-growing big city and still making history. San Antonio is a richly illustrated compilation of more than 150 years of coverage on the history and culture of the city, as told in the pages of the San Antonio Express-News. From local politics to news stories on the military, energy, water use, the border and immigration that reverberate nationally and internationally, to the recent naming of San Antonio’s five Spanish missions as a World Heritage site, the city has always been a place where the American identity is forged. This book tracks the city's past from 1865 until 2015 and is full of evocative pictures and compelling accounts culled from the Express-News archives. The collection celebrates companies that shaped the city, such as Frost Bank, which began extending credit in 1867; the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, founders in 1869 of what is now the Christus Santa Rosa Health System and subsequently their namesake university; and H-E-B grocery. This is not a standard civic history or a straightforward march through the decades. Loosely organized by theme, the stories in the collection are often quite often surprising, just like San Antonio itself. As anyone who has spent time in the city knows, this is a place with a soul.
Author: Denise Richter Publisher: Reedy Press LLC ISBN: 1681061996 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 166
Book Description
For a city that predates the Declaration of Independence, San Antonio has a youthful vibrancy that belies its age. The Alamo City may be the seventh-largest municipality in the United States, but it still manages to convey a small-town vibe. Friendly locals are happy to share their favorite spots for romance, history, arts, culture, nature, food, drinks, and más! With 100 Things to Do in San Antonio Before You Die as your guide, you’ll get a taste of the same ciudad that visitors and natives have come to love. Stroll down the picturesque River Walk that now spans fifteen miles from north of downtown to the World Heritage Site missions in the south, or take in one of the city’s awesome museums. Cheer on San Antonio’s own professional basketball team, lovingly nicknamed Los Spurs. From breakfast tacos through evening margaritas, a fiesta awaits. It’s difficult to find a day in San Antonio without some kind of celebration. Local author and blogger Dr. Denise Barkis Richter invites fellow tourists to join the party that is San Antonio. With her book in hand, you’ll have the tools you need to enjoy America’s best town. ¡Bienvenidos! Welcome!
Author: Mark Louis Rybczyk Publisher: Trinity University Press ISBN: 1595347585 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 214
Book Description
San Antonio is in the national spotlight as one of the fastest growing and most dynamic emerging major cities in America. Yet local lore has it that every Texan has two hometowns—his own and San Antonio. The Alamo City's charm, colorful surroundings, and diverse cultures combine to make it one of the most interesting places in Texas and the nation. In San Antonio Uncovered, Mark Rybczyk examines some of the city's internationally known legends and lore (including ghost stories) and takes a nostalgic look at landmarks that have disappeared. He also introduces some of the city’s characters and unusual features, debunks local myths, and corrects common misconceptions. Rybczyk embraces San Antonio's peculiarities by chronicling the cross-country journey of the World’s Largest Boots to their home in front of North Star Mall; the origins of the Frito corn chip and chewing gum; the annual Cornyation of King Anchovy; and Dwight Eisenhower's stint as the football coach at St Mary’s University. This completely updated, new edition of San Antonio Uncovered highlights San Antonio as a modern, thriving city with the feel of a small town that sees beauty in the old and fights to save it, even something as seemingly insignificant as an old Humble Oil Station; and its diverse inhabitants as those who appreciate the blending of the old and the new at the Tobin Center and fight to save what’s left of the Hot Wells Hotel.
Author: Rudy Felix Casanova Publisher: Trafford Publishing ISBN: 1490715606 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 83
Book Description
San Antonio, City for a King takes us on an extraordinary adventure through an amazingly unknown, yet expectantly fitting, piece of Texas' origins. We learn how 16 families from Iberia's Canary Islands answered their monarch's call to populate a desolate northeast area of his New Spain for a strategic political reason. There was the year-long journey: crossing the Atlantic and then trekking north over present-day Mexico to Bejar. We see how these people initiated the township of San Fernando, guided its growth for generations and helped form many Texas traditions. And we follow their descendants through the town's evolution, through two rebellions, three changes of patriotism and one name change...to San Antonio.
Author: Bernard Mackensen Publisher: Franklin Classics ISBN: 9780343508289 Category : Languages : en Pages : 68
Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Author: Luis Torres Publisher: Western National Parks Association ISBN: 9781877856174 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 52
Book Description
Describes the history of the Spanish missions in the San Antonio, Texas, area, now preserved as the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.
Author: Char Miller
Author: Brent Fortenberry
Author: Claudia R. Guerra
Author: Thomas S. Bremer
Author: San Antonio Express-News
Author: Denise Richter
Author: Mark Louis Rybczyk
Author: Rudy Felix Casanova
Author: Bernard Mackensen
Author: Luis Torres