San Antonio's Historic Plazas, Parks and River Walk: In Vintage Postcard Images - Softcover

Lewis F. Fisher; Foreword By Char Miller

9781893271272: San Antonio's Historic Plazas, Parks and River Walk: In Vintage Postcard Images

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1893271277 ISBN 13: 9781893271272

Publisher: Maverick Publishing Company, 2002

Much of San Antonio's distinctive charm derives from plazas placed in Spanish times to the River Walk, one of the world's most renowned linear parks. In this book they are uniquely portrayed in more than 165 vintage postcard images. Most date from the first half of the twentieth century, when the plazas, parks and River Walk were in transition to modern times. Most images thus bring a sense of recognition to residents and visitors alike. An index is included.

The vintage images are arranged to form a narrative in eight chapters: Military Plaza, Main Plaza, Alamo Plaza, Travis Park, River Walk, San Pedro Park, Brackenridge Park and Other Plazas and Parks, which include Madison Square Milam Park, Maverick Park, Romana Plaza, Woodlawn Lake Park, Riverside Park and Exposition Park. A foreword by longtime Trinity University history professor Char Miller puts the parks in a broad urban perspective.

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About the Author:

Among Lewis F. Fisher's other books are San Antonio: Outpost of Empires, The Spanish Missions of San Antonio, Saving San Antonio: The Precarious Preservation of a Heritage and the national award winning River Walk: The Epic Story of San Antonio's River.

Review:

These postcards wonderfully evoke San Antonio before the needs of the car--and its drivers--determined development patterns. They also remind us how important these spaces were in shaping how people met in public and in framing visitors experiences of this bustling metropolis. . . . That this sort of open landscape left a memorable impression was precisely what eighteenth-century Spanish urban planners had in mind when they designed San Antonio and other cities within their vast New World empire.

Framed around a grid that led citizens of this frontier town to revolve around San Fernando Cathedral for all daily activities, this circulation pattern reinforced the church's role as civic hub and created a vibrant street life. Main and Military plazas, which opened to the east and west of the cathedral, became centers of commercial trade and social exchange, and functioned as the communal heart. Other open spaces, such as Alamo Plaza and Milam Park, served similar needs. The pattern was reproduced in the next century with the creation of Maverick Park and Madison, Washington and Franklin squares. Each offered the face-to-face interactions that earlier planners deemed so necessary to a healthy civic life. As revealed in this books vintage views of crowded sidewalks and swimming holes, San Antonians took full advantage of their many opportunities to mingle in The Great Outdoors. -- from the foreword by Char Miller

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