The Heart of Bexar County

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seek an alternative plan to approve funding. Mayor Garza abandoned the plan. While the Plaza plan stalled, Father David Garcia began renovating San Fernando Cathedral. The foundation and structure of the church was stabilized. The altar was moved to the center of the church to enhance the experience for Mass. The rectory was replaced with a new building that housed a museum, gift shop, and vesting sacristy. Mayor Garza was succeeded by Phil Hardberger in 2005, who had a greater vision for the plaza. He told me he would like to close all the streets around the plaza and create a Mexican-style plaza. That meant closing the east-west streets of Commerce and Dolorosa and the north- south streets of Main and Soledad. He asked me to be a partner with him to make it happen, and I accepted, provided the county’s requests were granted. Since he was closing Main I asked him to also close the section of Main Street that ran between our courthouse and the Justice Center. He agreed to the stipulations provided we put up $2.5 million. We had a deal. Out of the four streets he wanted to close, Main and Soledad were the most important. Traffic on Main created pollution that was damaging San Fernando Cathedral. Closing Soledad would provide Main Plaza with a connection to the park entrance. In November 2005 Mayor Harberger went public with his plan. He announced that Main Plaza would be expanded with more trees and grass planted, a tiled fountain would be installed, along with walkways of crushed granite and stone. He also revealed his proposal to close all four streets adjacent to the park. Closing Commerce and Dolorosa presented a real traffic flow problem because they were the major east-west corridors for downtown. 18,000 vehicles a day traveled down Commerce and 13,800 on Dolorosa, an average of four times more traffic than Main and Soledad. After numerous public hearings, Mayor Hardberger presented his plan before the Commissioners Court on March 20, 2006. I had spent the previous weekend calling the Commissioners to ask them to be positive. I explained the benefits we would receive from the plan and that I thought that Hardberger would eventually back off closing Commerce and Dolorosa. The Commissioners approved the plan. Two months later in early May, Hardberger called me and said, “I have decided to leave Commerce and Dolorosa open.” I responded, “Brilliant decision.” After Hardberger announced his compromise, most opposition settled down. On June 8, I appeared at City Council to testify for the plaza plan. The council voted 9-2 to support the plan. On September 20, 2006, the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission voted to approve the plan 12-1. The following Thursday, the City Council voted to spend $350,000 to move the bus stops on Main and Soledad to Flores Street between Martin and Durango (now Cesar Chavez). On October 10, San Antonio Public Works Director Tom Wendorf presented the completed Plaza plan to the Commissioners Court. The City would deed us our front lawn, close Main Street and a portion of Soledad and fix our flooding problem. The Court supported the plan. I then persuaded my colleagues to allocate $4 million to enlarge our front courtyard, re-landscape, install a historic fountain, and add benches. With funding approval from the Commissioners Court and City Council, work got under way in early 2007. The Drury Hotel, located across the river from park entrance, agreed to build a pedestrian footbridge over the river. Also, Bruce Bugg, president of the Tobin Endowment, pledged $2 million to build five interactive fountains in Main Plaza. In April 2007, we held opening ceremonies for Main Plaza. Overall the plaza was a great success, creating walking, livable space in the heart of our city. With the closing of Main Street, San Fernando Cathedral was now properly framed and looked stunning facing the park. The river park was now connected, and more tourists began to visit our historic civic center. The City created the Main Plaza Conservancy to manage the plaza and plan numerous civic events. I had the advantage of observing the plaza work before we made final decisions on our front courtyard. I eliminated the proposed crushed granite and devoted all the space to stone paving and landscaping. We planted mountain laurel trees, lantana and roses. Most importantly, we reserved a space in the center of the courtyard for a very special Greek goddess. C h a p t e r V I I 1 F 3 9
IX L A D Y J U S T I C E by Tracy Wolff q Below, left: The Lady Justice Fountain in front of the Bexar Counry Courthouse. Below, right: The base of the Lady Justice fountain. In early 2002, Betty Bueche and I were searching the historical records of Bexar County when she showed me a picture of Themis, the goddess of divine law and order standing at the top of a three-tiered fountain. The base of the fountain included her three daughters Eunomia, Eirene, and Dike who represent harmony, peace and justice as well as the three seasons, Spring, Summer and Winter. One holds a garland of flowers, one an urn, and one a cornucopia. (The Greeks did not recognize autumn.) Betty said that the Lady Justice fountain had been removed during the 1927 construction of an addition to the courthouse. No one knew what had happened to it. When I showed the picture of the statue to Nelson he said, “We have to find the Lady Justice fountain.” 4 0 F T H E H E A R T O F B E X A R C O U N T Y
Page 1 and 2: THE HEART OF BEXAR COUNTY RESTORATI
Page 3 and 4: First Edition Copyright © 2020 HPN
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS FOREWORD .................
Page 7 and 8: q Architectural drawing of the Cour
Page 9 and 10: I E V O L U T I O N O F C I T Y H A
Page 11 and 12: q Above: Bottom, right: The Masonic
Page 13 and 14: q Architect’s Drawing of the Bexa
Page 15 and 16: II R E S T O R A T I O N O F C I T
Page 17 and 18: q San Antonio City Council Chamber.
Page 19 and 20: III T H E D E C L I N E O F T H E C
Page 21 and 22: 2 0 F T H E H E A R T O F B E X A R
Page 23 and 24: Both designs were ill conceived, mi
Page 29 and 30: q Bexar County Courthouse. submitte
Page 31 and 32: VI T H E C H I L D R E N ’ S C O
Page 33 and 34: q Above: Children’s court Judge R
Page 35 and 36: VII T H E F I R S T R E S T O R E D
Page 37 and 38: q Before and after restoration of t
Page 39: In 1996 Father David Garcia, belove
Page 43 and 44: q Top, left: The Lady Justice fount
Page 45 and 46: q Right: Lady Justice during the un
Page 47 and 48: q Above and below: Construction of
Page 49 and 50: With that picture of the original c
Page 51 and 52: q Above: June 17, 2018, King Felipe
Page 53 and 54: q Above: Removal of the Gondeck add
Page 55 and 56: q Bexar County Courthouse after the
Page 57 and 58: XII T H E B E X A R C O U N T Y A R
Page 59 and 60: q Above: Texas A&M-San Antonio Arch
Page 61 and 62: XIII T H E B E X A R H E R I T A G
Page 63 and 64: q Exhibits from the Bexar County He
Page 65 and 66: q Right: Northside view of the Bexa
Page 67 and 68: ABOUT THE AUTHORS C O U N T Y N E L
Page 69 and 70: APPENDIX A A R C H I T E C T S & C
Page 71 and 72: APPENDIX C A R C H I T E C T S & C
Page 73 and 74: APPENDIX D B E X A R C O U N T Y O
Page 77 and 78: JTM CONSULTING, LLC Drawing on a lo
Page 79 and 80: G BRACEWELL, LLP From top to bottom
Page 81 and 82: NICHOLAS & BARRERA, P.C. For nearly
Page 83 and 84: DAVIS, CEDILLO & MENDOZA, INC. G To
Page 85 and 86: LINEBARGER GOGGAN BLAIR & SAMPSON,
Page 87 and 88: LAW OFFICES OF SERNA & SERNA Growin
Page 89 and 90: G ESCAMILLA & PONECK, LLP Above: Pa
Page 91 and 92:
WATTS GUERRA, LLP G Left: Mikal C.
Page 93 and 94:
GUNN, LEE & CAVE, P.C. G Left: Ted
Page 95 and 96:
THOMAS J. HENRY LAW Thomas J. Henry
Page 97:
$34.95 978-1-944891-70-1 Ë|xHSLJOE
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The Heart of Bexar County

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