Brackenridge Park began its life as a heavily wooded, bucolic driving
park at the turn of the twentieth century. Over the next 120 years it
evolved into the sprawling, multifaceted jewel San Antonians enjoy
today, home to the San Antonio Zoo, the state's first public golf
course, the Japanese Tea Garden, the Sunken Garden Theater, and the
Witte Museum.
The land that Brackenridge Park occupies, near the San Antonio River
headwaters, has been reinvented many times over. People have gathered
there since prehistoric times. Following the city's founding in 1718,
the land was used to channel river water into town via a system of
acequias; its limestone cliffs were quarried for building materials; and
it was the site of a Civil War tannery, headquarters for two military
camps, a plant nursery, and a racetrack.
The park continues to be a site of national acclaim even while major
sections have fallen into disrepair. The more than 400 acres that
constitute San Antonio's flagship urban park are made up of half a dozen
parcels stitched together over time to create an uncommon varied
landscape. Uniquely San Antonian, Brackenridge is full of romantic
wooded walks and whimsical public spaces drawing tourists, locals,
wildlife, and waterfowl.
Extensively researched and illustrated with some two hundred archival
photographs and vintage postcards, Brackenridge: San Antonio's
Acclaimed Urban Park is the first comprehensive look at the
fascinating story of this unique park and how its diverse layers evolved
to create one of the city's foremost gathering places.
