Don't forget to set your clock for 11:30 am tomorrow, Wednesday, May 13th when we hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the historic Hertzberg Clock! This brief ceremony will be held at the corner of 175 E. Houston Street at St. Mary’s Street in celebration of National Historic Preservation Month and the Hertzberg Clock’s return to service! Meet the person who restored the clock to its operational condition and get a peek at its inner workings. We will meet you at The Clock tomorrow!
The Conservation Society invites you to our 2nd Historic Preservation Month event as we celebrate the restoration of the the Hertzberg Clock on Wednesday, May 13th @ 11:30 AM. Don't miss this historic event!
A Woman’s Work is Never Done
Most of the fair’s pavilions were funded by government, corporations, or religious organizations. Since women were excluded from the planning phase of the expo, private funds for a permanent pavilion were raised by influential women in the community, including Sherry Kafka Wagner, Nellie Connally, and Edith McAllister, as well as 12,500 women who bought membership across the country. The perseverance of the Woman’s Pavilion’s organizers and fund-raisers is commemorated by Ethel Wilson Harris’ Wall of Hands, which contains eighty handprints on tiles mounted to the right of the main entrance.
Caption: The front of the Woman’s Pavilion as it appeared in 2006. The original wooden doors carved by master craftsman Lynn Ford (brother of architect O’Neil Ford) have been removed and stored offsite. Photo by Ron Bauml.
The interior of the multi-level pavilion is suffused with natural light, augmented by ceramic light fixtures by artist Martha Mood. Photo by Stuart Johnson.
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The “Germantown” that Wasn’t
Many histories of HemisFair ’68 written in 2018 and later (including one by the Conservation Society) refer to the multi-ethnic neighborhood cleared for the fair as “Germantown.” Although there were many Germans in this area in the 19th century, the name doesn’t appear on official maps and hasn’t cropped up in interviews with former residents. Prior to 1959, the area between Alamo Street and the river south of the Commerce St. bridge had been called “Little Rhein” in a few publications. Author Charles Ramsdell, and later Hettie Worley in her Houses at HemisFair Park booklet, included this area under the designation “The German Town.” And from a small misunderstanding, a great myth was made. Thanks to additional research provided by Sarah Gould, Maria Pfeiffer, and Leonard Kemp for debunking the myth.
Caption: The original home of German merchant Hermann Schultze was torn down to build the HemisFair Convention Center. This photo shows the back of the house, looking north towards Commerce Street, with Joske’s Department Store and St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the background. The house was documented prior to demolition and reconstructed on Goliad Street (now E. Nueva) near Schultze’s store, which had been preserved on the fairgrounds. Photo by Orville M. Thompson, c. 1967.
Caption: Front of the reconstructed Hermann Schultze House. Photo by Ron Bauml, 2010.
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Look Out Below
The Coyne, Tynan, and Dugosh House fronted on Goliad Street (now Hemisfair Plaza Way), which became the major east-west axis crossing the 1968 fairgrounds. Fairgoers could walk, take the monorail, or ride the skyride down this corridor between preserved houses and modern pavilions. The first photo shows the 19th-century house the way it looked prior to renovation for the fair in 1966. The post-fair photo shows the monorail track and one of the stanchions for the skyride carefully positioned around the historic house. Photos: San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation.
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Tower Power
The need to differentiate the Tower of the Americas from Seattle's Space Needle, built for the 1962 World's Fair, resulted in an innovative design by Ford, Powell & Carson. At one point, designers tested the aerodynamics for the tower's tophouse on a model immersed in the San Antonio River. Once the full-scale structure was completed, a 43-second elevator ride whisked passengers at 800 feet-per-minute from the base to the observation deck. Admission to this attraction, which included a 360-degree rotating restaurant, cost $1 for adults and 50 cents for children in 1968.
Caption: The famous Goodyear blimp circles what was then the tallest observation tower (750 feet with antenna) in the U.S. Photo by Orville Thompson, 1968.
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Honey, We Shrunk the Fair!
HemisFair ’68 originally featured five large-scale permanent structures. Of these five, only two remain – they are the Tower of the Americas and the Confluence Theater (former John H. Wood, Jr. Federal Courthouse). The former theater, built using federal funds, was protected by preservation covenants before being transferred to the City of San Antonio.
The three buildings lost were the HemisFair Arena (the Spurs first San Antonio home) in 1995, the original convention center at S. Alamo and W. Market Streets in 2016, and the Texas Pavilion (former Institute of Texan Cultures) in 2025. Passionate grassroots efforts to save the arena and the Texas Pavilion both fell short of preventing their demolition.
Photo: HemisFair Arena, 1990. Photo by Joanna Williams.
Photos: Institute of Texan Cultures, 2000. Photo by Gordon Shults.
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Before the Splashpads Came the Acequia
The neighborhood that existed prior to HemisFair ’68 was built on farmlands once attached to the Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo). The original streets angled off the main downtown grid to provide access to water carried by the Acequia Madre ditch on its way south to the other missions. A portion of the stone-lined irrigation ditch was preserved for the fair and can be seen on the grounds today. Photo: In this 1966 photo, Mrs. Leo Fox and Bexar County Archivist Richard Santos examine a remnant of the Acequia Madre that ran south from Goliad Street (now identified as an extension of E. Nueva St. within the park). San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation.
Map: The dark blue line on this Urban Renewal Agency map shows the location of the acequia in the HemisFair area. City of San Antonio map adapted by Elizabeth Pople.
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Turned Inside Out – the Carlos Mérida Mural
Guatemalan artist Carlos Mérida created this exuberant mosaic mural depicting the world’s different cultures through abstract figures. Made from two million pieces of glass, it was installed inside the 1968 Convention Center. Today, the mural can still be seen across from the Lila Cockrell Theater, although it is now outside after the 2016 Convention Center remodeling. Photo by Vincent Michael, Ph.D.
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From HemisFair to Hemisfair
Today’s park has undergone several name changes since the close of the 1968 world’s fair. They are:
HemisFair Plaza: 1969 – 1988
HemisFair Park: 1988 – 2014
Hemisfair (lower case “f”, dropped “Park”): 2015 – present
Photo by Ron Bauml
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Celebrating Historic Preservation Month with a seminar about HEMISFAIR: Past, Present, and Future. First 100 registrants will receive a gift bag which includes this year's Preservation Pin. Don't delay - REGISTER TODAY.
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