San Antonio Early History! (Alamo, Alamo Heights: houses, neighborhoods, construction)

[wCat]

Originally Posted by smuboy86

I had a friend in High school who's grandfather owned most of the land where Northwoods is at 1604/281, but was forced to sell at the height of the 80's land crash.

ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

[Memories Galore]

I've always been told (by my Dad and some others who have studied SA history), that the city maps/grids were acutally based on the premise of a wagon wheel, with the loop (Loop 410 at the time) comprising the outer rim or wheel and all of the major roads comprising the "spokes" of the wheel.

These major roads were the wagon trails or cattle trails that led to other major entities out of San Antonio.

Thanks for sharing all of the maps - they are awesome!

[spaceage007]

Hey I love this post as well as Gone But Not Forgotten. I would love to see some more pics like the I-10 and DeZaVala one. I work here at I-10 and Hebner and when I show my co-workers that photo they are shocked...it was before I was born, but not that long ago. The NW has grown please post more of those. I was looking at the 1950 SA map and had some questions. Mabe the map is off scale or the streets have stretched themsleves, but the NW looks bunched together. I remember when Marbach didnt go as far as it does now. I noticed that Ingram Rd. was called Woodlwan Drive. Culebra road runs to the right of Culebra creek veers left then Tezel branches off to the right. Now Culebra runs to the left of Culebra creek right up to Tezel. The old roads are still there, but the old part of Culebra road is now an extended part of Grissom. So, if you know the area I speak of there is a little road that connects Culebra to Grissom is the old Culebra Rd. I also noticed there is no HW151 or even a little dirt road there. Now if you follow Portanco down towards Hunt Lane you will see Rodgers road. Is that 1604?? It cannot be what is now Ray Elisson Dr. Well that where I grew up and still live, a lot has changed in that area. I miss the old NW....I remember when it was concidered Butt****Egypt !!!

[RedOregon]

Anyone have any history concerning the west side, Talley road area in particular? Moving out that way soon and curious about past history. Thinking real hard about getting a metal detector, since there's a path/road going right thru my soon to be front yard... wondering what I might dig up!

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by RedOregon

Anyone have any history concerning the west side, Talley road area in particular? Moving out that way soon and curious about past history. Thinking real hard about getting a metal detector, since there's a path/road going right thru my soon to be front yard... wondering what I might dig up!

Hello RedOregon,

I see you want to move further West, perhaps to escape the urban sprawl? If so, Talley Road is getting more crowded every month with more housing developments starting. Anyway, you might check with 940 as he was raised in that area.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by RedOregon

Anyone have any history concerning the west side, Talley road area in particular? Moving out that way soon and curious about past history. Thinking real hard about getting a metal detector, since there's a path/road going right thru my soon to be front yard... wondering what I might dig up!

Hi Red! I would invest in metal detector in a heartbeat! Do you have much acreage? I couldn't tell you much without having more particulars about your location. El Camino Real traversed that side of San Antonio from Mexico and there were always skirmishes along that road...lots of historical info available on that and where it was located. Keep in mind, that it sometimes was altered in certain areas as trouble spots developed. I have friends in Pearsall County that have found Uniform buttons, spoons, and even parts of swords etc near the Frio river where El Camino Real crossed.

If you go to the county courthouse, go to Deed Records and ask a clerk to help you do a title search on your property. If you don't hit a dead end with a million listings by a developer, you could trace your property to being a parcel out of an original land grant in the early 1800's. What fun!

Also...try Mapquest and view your property from an ariel view. You might be able to see how far that path continued. Often they were an ingress and egress easement along property lines.

Have fun and let us know if you find anything!

[RedOregon]

Acreage is a little over a half acre, just enough to be interesting without being exhausting. Location is in WestOak estates, and Google maps shows an old road running right thru my front yard.

Should be interesting... will pass along any finds!

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by RedOregon

Acreage is a little over a half acre, just enough to be interesting without being exhausting. Location is in WestOak estates, and Google maps shows an old road running right thru my front yard.

Should be interesting... will pass along any finds!

I was thinking that you would move to WestOak Estates as that is the only real nice housing area on Talley so far. I have been in that area several times in the past. It was started by Gordon Hartman Homes before he sold the business. Let us know about the HOA there and Good Luck!

[940]

Originally Posted by Steel Man

you might check with 940 as he was raised in that area.

I was raised in the general area but I can only comment on what was out there from the 70s on...I don't know much about the earlier history of Talley Rd. I do know that when you look at the google satellite map, you can see what used to be outlines of a neighborhood straight east of Westoak Estates and just to the west of North San Antonio Hills, south of Alamo Ranch.
In fact, AR is beginning to cut through that area which was going to be a western extension of North San Antonio Hills. My parents almost bought a house in that area back in the mid 70s when the neighborhood developers were considering expanding further west which is what those old roads were.

I also remember when Talley had some hellacious dips in the road and it almost felt like a roller coaster at times if you hit them too fast. The biggest dip was just south of Medio Dr as you headed toward Potranco...it was fixed about 20 years ago though due to massive flooding that always occurred there at that old low water crossing.

I'd love to hear if you find anything on your new acreage, RedOregon...I do like that area and from the google maps, it looks like you'll be able to connect to Alamo Ranch Parkway/Hwy 151 just to your north some day and head east towards 1604. Same with Wiseman Blvd to your south...in any case, you won't have to rely on Potranco Rd.

[940]

While doing a search for history in NW San Antonio, specifically Talley Rd, I came across this link for Zion Lutheran Church in Helotes. It goes into detail on some of the old congregation that were originally from Germany and the influence they had in areas like Braun Rd, Galm Rd, Helotes and Leon Valley. It's very interesting and some of the names are very familiar because of road names and local NISD elementary school names. Here's the link:

http://lonestar.texas.net/~gdalum/history/part3.html

If anyone has noticed the old rock building at Braun Rd and Loop 1604 (just inside the loop), then you've seen one of the old farms that used to inhabit the area around the church. Not many of them are left so I sure hope they do something with that old home...it was there at Christmas but I haven't been back to SA since so someone will have to tell me if it's still there.