City preview · SAN ANTONIO
Two low stone arches carry the Espada canal across a creek to supply the fields. A restored Westside dance hall teaches accordion. Pearl’s brewing building became a hotel, while the Fairmount went onto wheels and travelled whole to a new site.
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From an irrigation canal to a Westside dance hall
Four complete stories and their public sources are shown here; the rest of the collection is in the app.
01 · Espada Aqueduct
One stream runs above another.
Water bound for Espada's fields follows a gentle downhill grade. At Piedras Creek, the ground drops away. Builders put two stone arches across the creek and carried the canal in a trough above it. The trough maintained the canal's downhill grade across the creek. Canal water travels over the arches; creek water passes underneath. The two streams cross here without mixing.
Source: sanantonio.gov
02 · Lerma’s
People once came to dance. Now they learn to play.
In 1951, Pablo Lerma took over a venue called El Sombrero, renamed it for himself and booked conjunto bands. People came after work for accordion music and dancing. After the nightclub closed, a community organization restored the building. Conjunto Heritage Taller now teaches accordion and bajo sexto in the former Lerma's.
Source: home.nps.gov
03 · Hotel Emma
Pearl stayed open with soda, ice and dairy products.
When Prohibition arrived, Emma Koehler kept Pearl's buildings working. The brewery made a very low-alcohol beer substitute, bottled soda, and entered the ice and dairy businesses. Legal beer sales resumed in Texas in 1933, and Pearl shipped beer again. Its former brewing building is now a hotel bearing her name.
Source: tshaonline.org Source: tshaonline.org
04 · Fairmount Hotel
The whole brick hotel traveled on 36 wheel units.
On March 30, 1985, the Fairmount Hotel began moving as one building. The team placed the three-story brick structure on transporters with 36 sets of pneumatic tires and slowly took it through the streets. Bridges along the way had been reinforced beforehand. Six days later it reached its new site. Windows and brick walls had stayed together; the entire hotel arrived intact.
Source: guinnessworldrecords.com
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