December 5 in San Antonio history…

1949
More than 41,000 people attend the new open house at Frost Bros. to see the new four floor Travis Street addition, which doubles the store’s floor space.  Mayor White cuts the ribbon with sequin-covered scissors.

1983
U. S. Represenative Tom Loeffler and Hunter Harrison, special counsel to the Secretary of Education, come to San Antonio for ceremonies recognizing Winston Churchill High School as an exemplary school.

1990
Ground is broken on the Alamodome, located on the former Alamo Iron Works site and adjacent property, on the east side of Interstate 37 and across from the HemisFair Park area.

August 29 in San Antonio history…

1940
City commissioners adopt a resolution renaming Riverside Theater for the late Edwin P. Arneson.

1955
The first black students in San Antonio’s history to be accepted for classes in public high schools with white students have been enrolled in Edgewood High School.

1990
A hearing on the Edwards Aquifer is held in the Convention Center regarding a catfish farm, slated to go into operation in September, that will use 11,000 acre-feet of water per year.

August 28 in San Antonio history…

1874
Pope Pius IX creates the San Antonio Catholic diocese as part of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

1915
A contract for the erection of Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital is awarded to H.N. Jones Construction Co., at an agreed price of $200,092.

1990
As a relief from the recent increase in gasoline prices, Pen Foods at 8101 Callaghan Road offers to reduce your grocery bill by ten cents for every gallon of gasoline or diesel purchased that day.

July 30 in San Antonio history…

1958
County Commissioners Court changed the name of Bexar County Coliseum to Joe Freeman Coliseum.  In changing the name of the building, members of the court noted that “through his untiring efforts and unslefish and liberal donations, Joe Freeman, an outstanding citizen of San Antonio and Bexar County, is responsible for a coliseum of which all Bexar County may be proud.”

1990
Sixty feet of the new flood-control tunnel under construction collapses, leaving a 620-ton boring machine stuck 150 feet beneath Brackenridge High School.  The collapse boosted the price of the tunnel by $10 million and left the Ohbayashi Corporation and the Army Corps of Engineers perplexed as to how to complete the boring through unstable soil.

1992
Foley’s department store opens in Rolling Oaks Mall.

July 16 in San Antonio history…

1911
Capt. Andreas Coy, assistant police chief, was injured when he fell into a cellar in Casino Hall while trying to ferret out a burglar.

1953
Parade fanfare and visits by Gov. Allan Shivers and Hollywood stars will mark the world premiere of “The Man From the Alamo” at the Majestic Theater.

1990
The San Antonio Police Department begins a downtown bicycle patrol with four officers on Miyata mountain bikes.  Lt. Rudy Vernon, commander of the downtown foot patrol, hopes to have 25 officers trained on the bikes by the end of the month.

April 16 in San Antonio history…

1940
Bob Wills records a new version of “San Antonio Rose” at Burrus Mill Studio in Saginaw, Texas.  This new version includes lyrics and is entitled “New San Antonio Rose.”  It earns a gold record and becomes a country music classic.

1968
La Posada Motor Hotel (now La Mansion del Rio) was “eternally opened” today at a 2:30 p.m. ceremony.  Father Louis Blume, S.M., president of St. Mary’s University, Rabbi David Jacobson and Espiscopal Bishop R. Earl Dicus joined in the ecumenical blessing of the new hotel.  Mayor W. W. McAllister then tossed a key off the balcony and into the San Antonio River to officially open the hotel.  “The doors of La Posada will never again be locked,” said Tom Herring, president of the hotel company.  The building previously housed the St. Mary’s School of Law before its conversion into a hotel.

1990
Officials from Opryland USA and USAA officially announce that the name of the planned $100 million, 201-acre musical theme park to be located in northwest San Antonio will be called Fiesta Texas.

March 20 in San Antonio history…

1946
Fifty people in the 200 block of S. Frio are vaccinated for smallpox after a 20-year-old man becomes the first San Antonio victim of smallpox in the past 12 years. Dr. Robert Cherry, of the City Health Department, advised all people to be vaccinated who have not been vaccinated within the past six years.  “This is especially important here in San Antonio because of so much travel between here and Mexico,” he said.

1958
The Karam family opens “The New Mexican Manhattan” restaurant at 121 Soledad Street.  The name is taken from an earlier “Mexican Manhattan” restaurant run by the Covarrubias family that had gone out of business.

1990
Work begins on Convention Plaza, a TriParty project that closes Alamo and Losoya between Market and Commerce streets, slowing traffic to an average speed of 1 mph.  Commerce Street is reduced to two lanes from Alamo to about a half- block east.  A police officer doing his best to direct the snail’s pace traffic at Losoya said the traffic was the worst he had seen at the intersection.  “I’ve been out here since 10 in the morning,” the officer said.  “This is pretty bad.  Just wait till we have a Spurs game.”

March 10 in San Antonio history…

1949
The Alameda Theater on Houston Street (right) holds its grand opening.

1985
A week-long series of Irish themed events kicks off with a convoy of green-bedecked barges spewing green dye into the San Antonio River.  The special guest is Thomas Crotty, Lord Mayor of Kilkenny, Ireland.

1990
Appraisers from the South Texas Chapter of the International Society of Appraisers offer their expertise at the Witte Museum.  The public is invited to bring in artifacts and antiques to find out their worth for a charge of $4 per object for museum members and $5 for non-members.

March 9 in San Antonio history…

1731
The first Canary Islanders arrive in San Antonio.  Their legacy lives on today in Main Plaza downtown, also called Plaza de las Islas.

1990
The Resolution Trust Corp. sells the San Antonio Savings Association, founded 69 years ago and operated by three generations of the McAllister family, to a Dallas-based holding company that operates First Gibraltar Bank in a deal that will cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $890 million.  At 6 p.m. the savings association was officially renamed First Gibraltar-San Antonio.

1995
The City Council awards the river barge contract to Yanaguana Cruises instead of Paseo del Rio Boats who had run them since 1949. Yanaguana changed ownership in 2002 and was renamed Rio San Antonio Cruises.

March 8 in San Antonio history…

1936
The Studer Photo Company acquires the property at 402 San Pedro (right) for their new headquarters.

1950
The Olmos Theater (right) opens showing “The Girl from Manhattan”, starring Dorothy Lamour and Charles Laughton.

1990
The Express-News reports that Dr. Amy Freeman Lee will be stepping down as chairwoman of the Incarnate Word College board of trustees in May at the end of the current academic year.  She will deliver her last commencement speech at this year’s graduation.