Along the Edges of the Alamo, by Lori Duran

With so much recent attention given to the Alamo and its battle grounds I was reminded of my introduction to the Alamo chapel during a 1978 trip to the south Texas border with my grandparents. I was surprised then how it seemed, surprisingly small and boxed into the middle of the city. In 1718, Spanish Franciscan Friar Antonio Olivares led the founding of Mission San Antonio de Valero now commonly known as the Alamo. The friars choose a location along a river where they could setup a civilization with waterways suitable for irrigation. By 1836, the Alamo compound was a large complex that spanned approximately 462 feet by 162 feet. But its footprint quickly shrank following the battle. The city grew and commercial development along the battlegrounds edges replaced or obscured much of the hallowed grounds. The Alamo chapel remained but its perimeter became the setting of noteworthy department stores, hotels, a hospital with medical offices and other building.

The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas

Whatever happens to the Alamo battlegrounds in the future, the current edges of the Alamo hold a lot of fascinating post-battle history themselves and have contributed to the cultural evolution of the great city of San Antonio, Texas.

Joske's Department Store

By 1887, Joske’s was at the corner of Alamo and Commerce Streets, overlooking the historic Alamo Plaza. And by the first world war, Joske’s had become one of the largest stores, in Texas, having a large variety of merchandise for an increasingly affluent clientele from San Antonio and visiting tourists. Under the ownership of Alexander Joske, an expansion project began in 1909 which added two floors to the building and expanded each by 30 feet toward St. Joseph’s Church. During 1936, the five-level store became fully air-conditioned. In 1939, Joske’s added escalators and covered the 1909 exterior with a streamlined Art Deco façade with Spanish Colonial Revival details and the building was expanded by 100,000 square feet with first-floor windows designed after the famous Rose Window at Mission San José. To make way for this expansion, the rooftop electric sign, the largest in Texas, depicting a cowboy lassoing a steer came down. When Joske's wanted to expand again in 1945, nearby St. Joseph's Catholic Church refused to sell its land. Nevertheless, Joske's kept expanding, and St. Joseph's was eventually surrounded on three sides by the store and was jokingly called "St. Joske's." Over its history, the upscale flagship store was renovated several times and it had the slogan that it was "the biggest store in the biggest state. Joske’s served its customers until closing in 1987 when it was sold to Dillard’s, which occupied the building until 2008. Then it was purchased and later occupied by the Rivercenter shopping mall. The store has been gone for years but remains a favorite memory of longtime San Antonio residents.

Joske’s Department Store Building in 2019

 

The Menger Hotel

The Menger is adjacent to the Alamo chapel on the historic battle grounds. Founded by William Menger in 1859, it’s been in operation since then except during the Civil War when only its restaurant remained open. The Menger started as a modest boarding house when it opened with much fanfare. It was decked out with wrought-iron balconies and a stained-glass roof in its Victorian lobby and it was an overnight success. The Menger was an important boardinghouse on the stage line between New Orleans and San Diego. And when the train reached San Antonio in 1877, passengers raced each other from the depot to the Menger for a room. The "eight rooms with adjoining baths" were well known to travelers, who wanted to secure such luxuries. The Menger offered, in its Colonial Dining Room, specialties such as wild game, mango ice cream, and snapper soup made from turtles caught in the San Antonio River. At one time the pool area contained tropical flora and fauna including alligators. The Menger has been renovated and updated numerous times. In March 1879, gas lights were installed. The expansive wood bar and paneled ceilings, French mirrors, and gold-plated spittoons were the wonders of San Antonio. The beer chilled by the Alamo Madre ditch alongside mint juleps in solid silver tumblers, and hot rum toddies became Menger traditions. South Texas cattlemen used the Menger as headquarters for spring cattle drives. Theodore Roosevelt first visited the Menger in 1892 on a javelina hunt. Roosevelt returned to recruit some Rough Riders at the hotel in 1898 to fight in the Spanish-American War. The hotel was remodeled at various times and the walls sported western art. One of their paintings was used as a prop in the 1956 movie, Giant. Resident guests included Richard King, founder of the King Ranch, Pola Negri the silent film star, Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who designed and started Mount Rushmore, and Adina De Zavala one the women responsible for saving the Alamo. Other notable guests included Robert E. Lee, John Pershing, George Patton, Oscar Wilde, O. Henry, and a long list of US presidents. The Menger Hotel still is still operating today and remains a great place to stay and learn about San Antonio history.

Menger Hotel

Vintage Menger Postcard

The Crockett Hotel

The Crockett Hotel, located just behind the historic Alamo chapel, was the site of frontiersman Davy Crockett’s death during the final chaotic moments of the battle. Reportedly during the night before the final assault of the Alamo, hundreds of troops moved into the area where the hotel pool is now situated. Years after the battle, there was a general store that occupied the site. Then in 1909, the store was replaced by the Crockett hotel which was built by the International Order of Odd Fellows. The Odd Fellows named it after the Alamos’ most famous defender and descendants of those who fought at the Alamo have been known to meet at this hotel. The 275 Odd Fellows brothers dedicated the top two floors of the six-story structure for lodge purposes and the first four floors for a hotel. In 1927, a west wing was added. A 60-room wing was constructed to serve the needs of the city for visitors to the 1968 Hemisfair in San Antonio. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows maintained ownership until 1978 when it was purchased by an investor from British Columbia. Then in 1982, San Antonio native, John Blocker, bought the Crockett. At that time, the property was carefully renovated in order to be faithful to the original building. Using photographs of the existing structure, the architects uncovered original brickwork, windows and storefront structures, cleaned and repaired trim and cornices, and restored the lobby to its original condition. In addition, an atrium was constructed, and some guest rooms were added while others were refurbished. The Crockett Hotel is still operating today and remains a top choice hotel.

Crockett Hotel

Emily Morgan Hotel

Steps away from the Alamo Chapel is the Emily Morgan Hotel, formerly the Medical Arts Building. Legend has it that Morgan was the celebrated Yellow Rose of Texas. Her real name was Emily West and she is said to have been a free-born black woman who was taken hostage by Gen. Antonio López de Santa Ana, and whose beauty is said to have distracted him shortly before his defeat at San Jacinto, a pivotal battle in the Texas Revolution. The historical accuracy of the tale is questionable but still intrigues. The Medical Arts Building was constructed in 1926 and represents an intact example of the type of Neo-Gothic skyscraper popular throughout the United States during the 1920s. It was designed by renowned Texas architect Ralph Cameron, who was also responsible for the neighboring Hipolito F. Garcia Post Office and Federal Building. Originally built to house doctors’ offices and a hospital, the thirteen-story structure includes a Chateauesque corner tower, a steeply pitched mansard roof, and gargoyles representing figures with medical complaints such as toothaches. In 1984, the building was adapted for use as a hotel. The remodeling involved the demolition and reconstruction of all internal elements of the building. However, the awe-inspiring exterior was left intact. Since 1984, The Emily Morgan Hotel has proudly been providing upscale accommodations to guests.

Postcard showing the Medical Arts Building (on the right) before it became the Emily Morgan Hotel

The Emily Morgan in 1986 shortly after opening.

Woolworths 

During my childhood Woolworths held no admiration for me but it was one of the few stores where I could buy something with my allowance. Also this series of dime stores was a front-line participant in the desegregation efforts in the 1960s. On March 16, 1960, San Antonio became the first Southern city to negotiate a city-wide peaceful desegregation of lunch counters. One of San Antonio’s best-known lunch counters was the downtown Woolworth on the corner of Alamo and East Houston streets which is basically right in front of the Alamo chapel. Woolworths remained there until 1997, when the retailer left San Antonio. Many San Antonians probably remember more about the 1997 closing of the retailer than realize it’s a very special place in the civil rights movement. Now the 1921 building has since become home to a Jimmy John’s, Belgian Sweets, Tomb Raider 3D ride, and Ripley’s Haunted Adventure.

The Woolworth Building in 2019

 

Hotel Gibbs

Hotel Gibbs at the Alamo is said to be where the Alamo was breached. The hotel is housed in a converted century-old office building built on the spot where the final incursion on the Alamo began. Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis was one of the first to be shot when the Mexican soldiers made it over the wall, and reportedly continued cutting through them with his sword until he bled out. Travis died at the age of 27 right where the Hotel Gibb’s front desk now stands. When Travis’s friend Samuel Maverick heard of the bloodshed and death, he reportedly told a friend that he felt compelled to come back to the Alamo and purchase the land in which William Travis was killed. Maverick constructed a two-story house in 1850, where the soil was soaked with the blood of the fallen and Colonel Travis who had died not yet thirty years earlier.

In 1909 the Maverick House was gone, and Colonel C.C. Gibbs replaced it with a high-rise office building. The Gibbs building was eight stories of white glazed brick and terra cotta. Its interior features were just as magnificent, including one of the city’s first elevators. It was in the midst of the 1909 construction of the Gibbs’ office building when workers stumbled across two of the cannons that were used during the Battle of the Alamo. Both cannons were removed from the building’s basement and brought elsewhere. One was placed in the Alamo Mission Museum, and the other was later brought to the Briscoe Western Art Museum. In 2006, the Gibbs Building became Hotel Indigo which is now Hotel Gibbs. The elevators still exist at the Hotel Gibbs today, but they are roped off and no longer in use.

Hotel Gibbs

Hotel Gibbs Front Desk

About the Author

Lori Duran serves on the board of directors at the Austin History Center Association. In her spare time she writes free-lance magazine articles and pictorial books about local history. Her current book Austin’s Travis Heights Neighborhood describes the rich and fascinating history of the original south Austin. Her next book, The University of Texas at Austin: The First One Hundred Years will be released later in 2020.