Bexar County Historical markers
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NUMBER OF MARKERS IN COUNTY (BEST GUESS)- 347
Have -245 Need- 105
Bexar County is named for Presidio San Antonio de Bexar a Spanish fort. It is the 4th largest County in Texas and many other counties were made from Bexar County, San Antonio is the colorful county seat.
I first visited San Antonio in 2004 this was in my first visit to the States before to becoming a "permanent resident". We stayed on the Riverwalk at the historic Le Mansion and thus began my relationship with San Antonio, a city I still get excited to visit. As far as historical markers go Bexar County is messy, every reason that can make marker huntering difficult exists in Bexar County. It is fortunate that San Antonio is so much fun to visit or Steve may have given up the hunt here, altogether. Okay, so why is it difficult? To start, I have failed to locate a complete list of all the markers, and when I say complete I mean including all the missing markers. Landmarks with associated markers that have been lost to Bexar counties' rapid development. Even the Alamo was once at risk to "progress" had not some very determined women stepped in to save it. But while the Alamo was saved many other historical properties were lost. I try to include these with a picture of the property and marker if at all possible. The Texas Historical Commission entry for Bexar County has improved from when we first started our hobby back in 2005 but still contains many inaccurate entries and does depend on the help of the general public to report changes in location or markers that have vanished, there are several duplicates entries with slightly different titles. Bexar County actually has its own booklet which lists the majority of the easy to get to markers but does not address any missing markers. Bexar Historical Commission is very active and dedicate many new markers each year ands lets face they have a lot of great history and architecture to work with. They are not as busy however, replacing old markers that have been lost to vandals, traffic accidents, roadwork or simply stolen and there are unfortunately are a lot. The best list I have found comes from the IPhone app "Texas Historical Marker Guide". Greg the app creator has done a great job compiling his list, but like I'm sure our list, there are a few small errors just because we are making our lists from a combination of sources and for us time on the ground looking. |
Bexar County has more buildings with single medallions than any other county we have been to thus far, these were placed in the sixties. Many of these are missing, so many in fact that I wonder if they were stolen or actually removed. I'm not sure if these are actually possible to replace as they come from a much older program. Another unique characteristic of Bexar County is that here the marker program started in the early 1900s so the markers can take a shape that is not just the aluminum plate or gray granite centennial we are all used to seeing. So they don't necessarily jump out at you.
They are also markers on private property which is always a little more challenging but worse than private property there a markers inside buildings and marker on military installations. This restricts access and means you have to plan your day around the times they are open to visitors. Lastly San Antonio is a great city to walk around and you could easily walk to 50 of the markers around town, stopping for a margarita as needed, it is not however as much fun to drive around, it is very congested and there is almost continual roadwork. |
21st October, 2018- I not going to lie when a review of Bexar County comes up my heart sinks a little because I know that it feels like two steps forward and one step back. I do always clear up some mystery that previously had me confused, but there always some new quandary added. I think about what would help? and I realized that over the last few years when we visit Bexar County, in particular San Antonio it is always because there is another purpose. The last visit being a symposium. What is really needed is three or four days dedicated to marker hunting in this county, including a couple days with some focused walking around San Antonio. This would allow time to stop and visit with some of the building owners to see if they know what happened to the missing markers.
On this occasion we looked for Old Houston Road with no success. The Schulze Hardware in Hemisfair Park is still there but there was no marker to be seen, it makes wonder if it was ever moved with the building or purposefully removed because the building was relocated to its current location. The Stockman Building also does not have it's marker on the outside of the building, we will try and take a peek inside on our next visit.
We did on this occasion get to visit Mi Tierra which is a San Antonio institution and I was pleasantly delighted, the food was good and the margarita excellent. We also had breakfast at Schilo's another long time favorite of San Antonio and it is simple yet consistently good food. We have a list of restaurants that we hope to visit and in Bexar County the list is long and we are slowly checking them off, it s a yummy adventure.
On this occasion we looked for Old Houston Road with no success. The Schulze Hardware in Hemisfair Park is still there but there was no marker to be seen, it makes wonder if it was ever moved with the building or purposefully removed because the building was relocated to its current location. The Stockman Building also does not have it's marker on the outside of the building, we will try and take a peek inside on our next visit.
We did on this occasion get to visit Mi Tierra which is a San Antonio institution and I was pleasantly delighted, the food was good and the margarita excellent. We also had breakfast at Schilo's another long time favorite of San Antonio and it is simple yet consistently good food. We have a list of restaurants that we hope to visit and in Bexar County the list is long and we are slowly checking them off, it s a yummy adventure.
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7th August, 2019 - We were in San Antonio this time for an interview and that was my focus, intially from nervousness and after the interview in second guessing my performance. We did manage to capture some of the older markers which is always satisfying, we did not sadly, spend any time on the River Walk. Reviewing Bexar County is as frustrating as it always is and just as always I did uncover some new details which makes it worth another look. I did find out that the Battle of Alazan marker was confiscated by Treasury Agents, believing it was part of a defunct grocery store, this must be one of the most interesting reasons a marker has gone missing. Bexar County is working on replacing the marker but the text will reworked. Moos Homestead is definately missing the medallion and plate.