National Register Listing

Brackenridge Park

a.k.a. See Also: Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Works, Water Works; Pump House #2; Japanese Sunken Garden, Brackenridge Park Br

Roughly bounded by Hildebrand Ave., Broadway & Ave. B, Josephine St., US 281, River Rd., Alpine Dr., N. St. Mary's, San Antonio, TX

?Brackenridge Park in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, is one of the preeminent public parks in the state of Texas. Formally established in 1899, when George Brackenridge's Water Works Company donated 199 acres of property to the City of San Antonio for public use, the park includes a wide array of prehistoric and historic sites, including two Spanish-built irrigation ditches, and a former rock quarry. Beginning in 1915, recreational areas were introduced into the park, adding pavilions, playgrounds, bathhouses, and picnic areas. The park is nominated to the National Register at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the areas of Conservation and Entertainment/Recreation for its association with the development and design of San Antonio's parks system, and in the area of Industry for its association with the production of limestone and cement from about 1850 until 1908. The park is also nominated at the state level of significance under Criterion C in the areas of Architecture, Art, and Landscape Architecture for its rich collection of objects, structures, and buildings that span from the pre-park era through the Great Depression, and in the area of Engineering for its association with water delivery from 1719 through 1899. Noteworthy buildings and structures of statewide significance within the park include Pioneer Hall and the Sunken Garden Theater, two of the largest products of the Texas Centennial program, a federal and state-funded commemoration of Texas Independence from Mexico that sponsored the construction of monuments, museums, and markers statewide in the 1930s. The Japanese Sunken Garden, a major component of the park, is also significant at the state level, as a one-of-a-kind redevelopment of a former industrial site for public use as recreation facility, exhibiting a high degree of craftsmanship and design. Finally, Brackenridge Park is nominated under Criterion D at the state level in the area of Archeology-Prehistoric-Aboriginal because of its documented archaeological deposits and potential sites related to the Paleoindian (12,500-8,800 BC), Archaic (including Early Archaic (8,800 to 6,000 BP]; Middle Archaic [6,000 to 4,000 BP); and Late Archaic [4,000 to 1,200 BP]), and Late Prehistoric (1,200 to 350 BP) periods; and in the area of Archeology-Historic-Non-Aboriginal, for its documented and potential archeological deposits from the Spanish colonial period through the turn of the twentieth century. The historic period begins with the arrival of Europeans in Texas, and its earliest evidence in the park is the Alamo acequia and dam system, which dates to 1719. The historic period continues through the park era to 1961, the current fifty-year mark.

Local significance of the district:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2011.