Brackenridge Park Before 1899

For thousands of years, Native Americans camped along the spring-fed, meandering river near this site, finding shelter in the wooded landscape and sustenance from abundant vegetation and wildlife. Spanish colonists who arrived in the 1700s received land along the river and dug acequias to water their crops and livestock. As the town grew in the 1800s, limestone from nearby quarries supplied building material, and small gardens provided produce for residents. By the 1860s, the city had sold its remaining public lands in the area except for the quarries and a small riverfront parcel where Jean B. LaCoste built a privately owned water works to supply the city. George Brackenridge purchased the remaining river frontage, acquired and expanded LaCoste's water works in the 1880s, and after a severe drought dried the river's springs in the 1890s, drilled artesian wells to supply his system. No longer needing the riverfront land, he donated it to the city in 1899 as a public park that was named in his honor.

San Antonio, Texas · United States