December 17 in San Antonio history…

1926
The Texas Theater holds its formal grand opening.  The theater will be opened to the public on December 18.

1929
Workmen begin conversion of the Princess Theater on Houston Street into Blum’s Department Store.  It was later purchased in 1931 by Frost Brothers.  The building still stands at 217 E. Houston Street.

1980
The newly reconstructed Olmos Dam is dedicated after completion of a $10 renovation.

October 8 in San Antonio history…

1929
“It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!”
Richter’s Bakery begins advertising sliced Butter Krust bread along with the traditionally unsliced loaves.

1953
“The Robe” is the first film shown in CinemaScope in San Antonio.  To accommodate the CinemaScope image, approximately two and one half times as wide as a normal movie screen, the Majestic theater has been reconstructed with a new screen and new projection equipment.

1975
The Spurs travel to New Orleans to play a preseason double-header to inaugurate the new Superdome.  San Antonio plays Atlanta in the first game and the New Orleans Jazz play the Kansas City Kings in the second game.

July 17 in San Antonio history…

San Fernando Cathedral floor. Photo by Andy Crews, Texana/Genealogy Department

1856
San Antonio’s city limits are set as one square league with the dome of San Fernando Cathedral as center (right), divided into four wards.

1883
J. B. Belohradsky is issued a permit to build a brewery and ice house to the cost of $12,000. (This will become the Pearl Brewery.)

1929
Mayor C. M. Chambers announced today that the two branch public libraries, to be constructed out of the 1928 bond issue at a cost of $25,000 each, will be built in Roosevelt and San Pedro parks.  Work on the buildings will begin as soon as plans and specifications now being drawn by architects can be approved by the library board.

June 28 in San Antonio history…

Hugman, Robert R. R, “Shops of Aragon and Romula”, photograph, Memories of San Antonio, 22 June 2022, https://memoriesofsanantonio.com/2022/02/08/remembering-the-father-of-the-riverwalk-robert-h-h-hugman-who-was-born-on-this-day-120-years-ago/

1929
Architect Robert H. H. Hugman meets with with Mayor Chambers, two city commissioners, a group of property owners, and other civic leaders and began his presentation on river beautification entitled “Shops of Aragon and Romula.”  The plan, which would become the San Antonio Riverwalk, was based on old world cities in Spain and France.

1977
Construction workers began lifting the roof of the Convention Center Arena in order to add 6,000 extra seats.  The 2,260-ton roof will take three days to be raised 33 feet.  The construction work should be completed in the fall of 1978.

2004
Chlorine gas released from a derailed train tanker car near Loop 1604 and Nelson Road kills three people and sends 50 more to area hospitals. The derailment was caused when a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train, moving east onto a sidetrack, was struck by a westbound Union Pacific train, which failed to stop. The collision was one of eight train derailments that happened in the San Antonio area that year.

June 14 in San Antonio history…

1929
The “Greater” Majestic Theater opens its doors offering “The Singing Brakeman” Jimmie Rodgers on stage along with the Movietone Follies of 1929.

1992
Due to a very rainy winter and spring, the water in the J-17 Edwards Aquifer monitoring well reaches an all-time high of 703.3 feet.

2014
The San Antonio Spurs (right) cap their “Drive for Five” with a 104-87 win over the Miami Heat, avenging the previous year’s heartbreaking Finals loss and earning their fifth NBA Championship.

June 1 in San Antonio history…

1860
 Robert E. Lee is counted in the 1860 Federal census, living at Ladreska [sic] Phillips‘s boarding house here.

1929
The Smith-Young Tower [now Tower Life Building] is completed at a cost of $3 million.  It will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until the late 1950s.  The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

1936
The San Antonio Library begins bookmobile service to rural locations in Bexar County.

April 25 in San Antonio history…

1831
Thirty-five year-old Kentuckian James Bowie marries 19-year-old Ursula Veramendi in San Fernando Cathedral.  Ursula Bowie will die of cholera on Sept. 10, 1833 in Monclova, Mexico.  James Bowie died on March 6, 1836 defending the Alamo.

1929
A hamburger stand directly under the ancient Hapsburg coat-of-arms on the old Spanish Governor’s Palace has been ordered removed.

1955
The city begins administering the first Salk polio vaccine injections at seven city, county and military centers.

February 23 in San Antonio history…

1861
The Referendum on Secession takes place and Texans head to the polls to vote.  Bexar County votes to secede, 827 to 709.  Nearby counties of Blanco, Gillespie, Medina and Uvalde do not.

1929
Fire, apparently started by defective wiring, threatened mail and federal records and did $30,000 damage to San Antonio’s historic federal building in Alamo Plaza (right).

2013
William Barret Travis’s “Victory or Death” letter, written from the Alamo on February 24, 1836, is returned to the old mission where it will be on display until March 7.

December 25 in San Antonio history…

1874
The roof and central dome of San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo Mission collapse during a midnight Mass.  Fortunately, the mass is being held in an adjoining room instead of the nave.

1929
Night watchman W. G. O’Neill is under a doctor’s care this morning after getting stranded atop the Piggly Wiggly grocery store located on San Pedro Avenue for four hours last night.  He climbed to the roof to watch for burglars after receiving a tip that “a job was going to be pulled off.”  His ladder fell and he was exposed to freezing weather and the elements.  He called to a passerby who called the police to get him down.

2001
A three-alarm fire at the Alamodome kept firefighters busy Christmas morning as smoke poured from vents on the east side of the building.  For almost an hour, firemen scoured the dome, searching for the origin of the fire which was finally traced to a storage room where the old HemisFair Arena basketball court was smoldering.  Damage was estimated at $100,000 which was about the cost of a basketball court.  The next day’s game against the Dallas Mavericks went on as scheduled.  The Spurs lost 126-123.

November 18 in San Antonio history…

1929
A contract for $1,025.74 was made to purchase blinds for the Central Library from the Western Venetian Blind company by city commissioners today.

1967
Dr. Samuel Capers, rector of Christ Episcopal Church since 1930, announces his resignation due to illness.

1985
“The Far Side” and “Calvin & Hobbes” first appear in the San Antonio Express-News, replacing “Porterfield” and “Pavlov,” respectively.