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Tower Life Building

National Register of Historic Places in San AntonioOffice buildings completed in 1929Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in TexasSkyscraper office buildings in San Antonio
Tower Life Building, San Antonio, 2011 cropped
Tower Life Building, San Antonio, 2011 cropped

The Tower Life Building is a landmark and historic building in Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. Construction of the tower began in 1927 and the building rises 404 feet (123 meters) and has 31 floors. The building, which opened in 1929, was originally named the Smith-Young Tower and is the central component of a partially completed development called the Bowen Island Skyscrapers. The eight sided, neo-gothic brick and Ludowici green terra-cotta tower (complete with gargoyles) was designed by noted local architectural firm Ayres & Ayres (Atlee & Robert M. Ayres). While the exterior uses traditional materials such as brick, the internal structure is reinforced concrete on the lower floors, and steel frame on the upper floors. The building also housed San Antonio's first Sears, Roebuck and Company store in its lowest 6 levels.The other completed building in the development is the former Plaza Hotel (also designed by Ayres & Ayres), which opened in 1927. The property became the local outlet of Hilton Hotels in 1956 and was converted into the Granada Apartments in 1966. Subsequent structures in the development were never built as a direct result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. In the 1940s the building was renamed the Transit Tower for the San Antonio Transit Company, which the Smith Brothers purchased in 1943. In 1953 a television transmission tower was added to the structure. Renovations in 2010 removed the obsolete television mast in favor of the tower's original design, a copper tophouse with a 100 ft tall flagpole. The building is now named for its current owner, Tower Life Insurance Company. In 1991 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Tower Life Building (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Tower Life Building
River Walk, San Antonio

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Latitude Longitude
N 29.422777777778 ° E -98.491388888889 °
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Tower Life Building

River Walk
78205 San Antonio
Texas, United States
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Tower Life Building, San Antonio, 2011 cropped
Tower Life Building, San Antonio, 2011 cropped
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Council House Fight
Council House Fight

The Council House Fight, often referred to as the Council House Massacre, was a fight between soldiers and officials of the Republic of Texas and a delegation of Comanche chiefs during a peace conference in San Antonio on March 19, 1840. About 35 Comanche men and women under chief, Mukwooru (aka Muguara) represented just a fraction of the Penateka band of the southern portion of the Comanche tribe. He knew he had no authority to speak for the Southern tribes as a whole and thus, any discussions of peace would be simply a farce. However, if Mukwooru could re-establish a lucrative trade with the San Antonian's perhaps a peace, by proxy, could be established. Just as the Comanche had done had been done for centuries in San Antonio, Santa Fe and along the Rio Grande River. They would rob one settlement and then sell to the other. On March Chief Muguara brought in some trade articles and horses as well as an abused and tortured 14-year captive white girl named Matilda Lockhart that they had kidnapped and hoped that they would fetch a better price for her ransom, than what they received from nine year old, James Putnam/Putman just two weeks before. If the price was right, they may soon deliver over more captives. The remainder of the Penateka Comanche were, at the time, at Enchanted Rock with thirteen other captives that they planned to sell one by one to fetch better prices. The Southern Comanche had broken the 1835 as well as the 1838 treaty traveling hundreds of miles down the Colorado River and Guadalupe Rivers into the Texas settlements to steal horses and abduct children and had no intention of stopping this lucrative market economy that gave their young men a purpose. The various bands of the Southern Comanche had about thirty white captives and sixty Mexican captives, all abducted in recent raids. The council at the courthouse in San Antonio began when the 30 Comanche men were invited into a courthouse in downtown San Antonio, on the east side of the square east of San Fernando Cathedral, facing it. The men brought their women who concealed several tomahawks under the blankets they held. The men left their rifles with their horse handlers out front and unstrung their bows and walked in as a procession and sat on the floor facing the table of Texian representative including judges and Colonels. Captive Matilda Lockhart was delivered over, and when the other captives were not, and when they asked for a better price, the Texans took the Comanche delegation as hostages for a forced prisoner exchange. Soldiers from a nearby building entered the premises, the Comanche began to stab the Texans. The council ended with 12 Comanche men shot to death inside the Council House and 23 others killed outside. Two elderly men and two dozen women were held captive in order to obtain an exchange for the remaining Texan children held by the Comanche.

Acequia Madre de Valero (San Antonio)
Acequia Madre de Valero (San Antonio)

Acequia Madre de Valero is an 18th-century agricultural irrigation canal built by the Spanish and located in the Bexar County city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. When Martín de Alarcón founded San Antonio for Spain by establishing San Antonio de Valero Mission in 1718, Franciscan priest Antonio de Olivares and the Payaya people dug Acequia Madre de Valero by hand. It was vital to the missions to be able to divert and control water from the San Antonio River, in order to grow crops and to supply water to the people in the area. This particular acequia was the beginning of a much wider acequia system. Acequia Madre de Valero ran from the area currently known as Brackenridge Park and southward to what is now Hemisfair Plaza and South Alamo Street. Part of it that is not viewable by the public runs beneath the Menger Hotel. The acequia was restored in 1968 and that year was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.Acequia Madre de Valero was the initial phase of what became a 45-mile acequia network put in place by the Franciscan priests to provide water for the missions and their agricultural endeavors. The location of part of this acequia is adjacent to the Johann and Anna Heidgen House at 121 Star Street, and was a contributing factor in placing the house on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Bexar County, Texas in 2004. The acequia is lined with native limestone, a facet of Spanish engineering techniques. Some of the later stonework in the overall network was added by German immigrants. The full system involved placement of dams, canals and sluice gates. The complete network served residents of San Antonio until late in the 19th century. The Texas Historical Commission placed the historic landmark plaque on a limestone block at the Hemisfair Plaza section of Acequia Madre de Valero.

Arneson River Theater
Arneson River Theater

Arneson River Theatre is an outdoor performance theater located on the San Antonio River Walk in the U.S. state of Texas. The open-air venue was erected 1939-1941 by the Works Progress Administration. The design was supervised by architect Robert H.H. Hugman. It is named after Edwin P. Arneson, the regional engineer for the W.P.A. who was instrumental in securing funding for the Paseo del Rio. Arneson died before construction began. Many years later bells were added to arches behind the stage that Hugman had designed, and they were named for him. In a belated ceremony, the "Father of the River Walk" struck the bells for the first time, two years before his death.The stage is on the north side of river; the audience sits on the grass-covered steps on the south side, which can hold over 800 people on 13 rows of seats. A nearby stone bridge is often made part of the performance space. It is now called Rosita's Bridge in honor of Rosita Fernández, a pioneer of Tejano music, who performed here as star of the summer-long Fiesta Noche del Rio for 25 years. The theater continues to be used throughout the year for a wide variety of performances averaging over 200 each year including folkloric groups, festivals, music concerts, plays, dance, opera, and even weddings. Many of the river parades held throughout the year are televised from this unique open-air amphitheater. Above and behind the seating area is La Villita Historic Arts Village, a restoration of San Antonio's oldest residential neighborhood, today filled with artisan shops, galleries, and restaurants. The theater, along with several other San Antonio landmarks, was featured in the popular 2000 comedy film Miss Congeniality, starring Sandra Bullock and Michael Caine.