A campaign to renovate the cultural and historical heart of San Antonio is about to get underway in the next few months.
Leaders of Main Plaza Conservancy, a nonprofit that partners with the City of San Antonio as caretakers of the city’s foundational space, are in the early stages of design plans intended to improve the plaza’s accessibility and bring attention to its important history.
“People think everything happened in 1836,” said Mari Tamez, Bexar County Heritage outreach manager, referring to the time period of the Battle of the Alamo. “But 100 years before that, there were other people who were actually building the community itself.”
In 1730, King Philip V of Spain sent a contingent of Canary Islanders to establish Villa de San Fernando and the first municipal-style government. They developed a city plan with streets that radiated out from Plaza de las Islas Canarias, now known as Main Plaza.
Spanish law required the plaza to have a church and a governmental body. “From that point on, the Plaza de Las Islas was a focal point for the community,” Tamez said. “So much history has passed through the plaza as through San Antonio of course.”
Today the plaza is framed by the Bexar County Courthouse, built in 1896, and San Fernando Cathedral, built in 1755, along with Municipal Plaza, a hotel, apartments and offices adjacent to the plaza. At the corner of West Market Street, a few retail buildings owned by restaurateur Lisa Wong are vacant.
Ten years ago, the conservancy brought The Saga, a music and light show projected twice nightly, six days a week, onto the cathedral facade that tells the history of San Antonio. The free and popular attraction has been renewed for another decade.
The last major upgrade to the plaza was in 2008, a $12 million effort championed by then-mayor Phil Hardberger that involved a major realignment of streets and resulted in the formation of Main Plaza Conservancy.
The transformation was inspired by the zocas in Spain and Mexico, which serve as community gathering spaces, said Cathey Meyer, who serves on the board of directors of the conservancy. “If you’ve traveled to any of those places, they’re always packed with people,” she said.
In addition to improving accessibility for people with disabilities, Meyer said the conservancy board wants the plaza to be a comfortable place for residents and visitors, as well as the growing number of students and faculty from UTSA’s downtown facilities.
Better seating, events
For that reason, the group hopes also to improve seating in the plaza. On a recent sunny afternoon, a few small bistro tables and chairs were scattered about the uneven surface on the less shaded parts of the plaza.
Meyer pointed to a corner across Dolorosa Street, where the Founders Monument stands in front of the courthouse.
From that point, it’s only steps south on Main Avenue to the Bexar Heritage Center, a County-run history museum.
In the plaza, 19 embedded pavers are engraved with historical information about San Antonio and Main Plaza, including one that describes the 1745 peace treaty between the Spanish colonists and Native Americans that involved literally burying the hatchet — and a horse.
But those markers have become worn and nearly impossible to read, the artistry by Char Miller difficult to appreciate. “We want the history to be interactive so we’re having lots of discussions now about what does that look like?” Meyer said.
Main Plaza Conservancy Executive Director Molly Hall-Villarreal said the plaza wasn’t designed for optimal viewing of The Saga nor the kinds of events the group would like to bring into the area.
She said the plans could also provide a solution to better integrating the Portal San Fernando, steps located on the East side of the plaza, with the River Walk.
A refresh of the plaza will take all of those goals into account, Hall-Villarreal said. But a cost hasn’t been determined and the campaign kickoff date is not set.
The conservancy plans to release conceptual renderings within a few months to begin gathering community input.
“We want to make this a beautiful space that’s going to stand the test of time,” she said. “That’s why we’re waiting until we get deeper into the design. We cannot wait to tell the public … it’s the ‘people’s plaza,’ and it won’t be the ‘people’s plaza’ without their participation.”
‘A story to tell’
While touring the plaza recently, Hall-Villarreal and Meyer looked to the east at the towering Floodgate apartment building in the final stages of construction, to the new Marriott hotel on Soledad Street, and talked of developers’ plans for new lodging and residential towers along East Commerce Street.
“Downtown is going to look completely different in five years, and the plaza shouldn’t get left behind,” Hall-Villarreal said. “It has a story to tell.”
A descendent of Canary Island settlers, Tamez said she looks forward to seeing the plaza refreshed so that visitors recognize its importance to the founding of the city.
“There were people here doing the hard work, creating a community out of nothing, out of the wilderness,” she said. “These people did do the hard work. They did come with a royal decree to do so.”
On Friday, the Bexar Heritage Center will host its historic plaza days event at Main Plaza in conjunction with the museum’s program, “Hidden Histories of Resilient Women in Our Community,” from 9 a.m. to noon in the Double Height Courtroom, at 100 Dolorosa St.
The Conservancy is also hosting upcoming events in the plaza, including “Pirates on the Plaza with OPERA San Antonio and the Classical Music Institute,” on March 23.
Food trucks and other vendors will be in the plaza on April 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a viewing party for the total solar eclipse.
