Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company

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Marker No: 98

Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker

​State Antiquities Landmark

National Register of Historic Places

Geographic: 29.460295,-98.476921

Location:  Brackenridge Park, St. Mary's Avenue,  San Antonio

Marker Text: ​Near this site in 1879, Englishman William Loyd discovered a blue argillaceous limestone believed  to be a natural cement rock. Analysis by San Antonio druggist and chemist George H. Kalteyer confirmed the rock contained proper proportions of lime and clay to produce Portland cement.
      Loyd and Kalteyer, along with other investors, organized the Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company, which was chartered in January 1880. This, the first Portland cement plant west of Mississippi. Began with one intermittent pot kiln. A second pot kiln was added in 1889. Cement from this plant was used in the construction of the State Capitol and Driskill Hotel in Austin.
        Through the vision and leadership of Portland Cement pioneers Loyd, Kalteyer, and Charles Baumberger, who succeeded to the presidency following Kalteyer's death in 1897, the company flourished. In 1908 the plant relocated to a site later known as Cementville near Alamo Heights. The original quarry became the Japanese sunken gardens in Brackenridge Park. The kiln area was designated as Baumberger Plaza in 1944. (1991)