San Antonio Demographics

Like many cities in the American Southwest, San Antonio experiences steady population growth. The city's population has nearly doubled in 35 years, from just over 650,000 in the 1970 census to an estimated 1.2 million in 2005. San Antonio is the second-most populous city in the state of Texas after Houston and seventh-most populated in the United States. County seat of Bexar County, San Antonio covers over 400 square miles on the northern edge of the South Texas region and southeast of the Texas Hill Country.

The city has also grown substantially in area. Unlike most large cities in the U.S., San Antonio is not completely surrounded by independent suburban cities. San Antonio has an aggressive annexation policy and carefully directs its growth and zoning. The city has annexed almost three-fourths of its current land area since 1960. To allow for the eventual expansion of development, San Antonio recently annexed several long narrow corridors along its major roadways. A city that plans ahead, San Antonio plans to annex nearly forty additional square miles by 2009.

San Antonio History

The American Indians who originally inhabited the San Pedro Springs region along the San Antonio River called it Yanaguana, meaning refreshing waters. In 1691 on the feast day of St. Anthony, a group of Spanish explorers and missionaries stumbled upon the river and named it San Antonio, after the saint.

Father Antonio Olivares established the Mission San Antonio de Valero and founded the city in 1718. In the early 1800s, the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission. The soldiers called the old mission the Alamo (the Spanish word meaning cottonwood) to honor their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. The military, Spanish, Rebel and then Mexican, occupied the Alamo until the Texas Revolution. San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam and his band of Texan and Tejano volunteers battled house-to-house against General Marín Perfecto de Cós and his soldiers, and finally forced the Mexican troops to surrender. The victorious volunteers took over the Alamo and strengthened its defenses.

On February 23, 1836, General Antonio López de Santa Anna and his army descended upon San Antonio nearly taking them by surprise. The Texan and Tejanos volunteers were outnumbered, 189 to some 4,000 Mexican troops, but they fought fiercely, holding under the siege for 13 days. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was critical to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position. David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee, was one of the volunteers who died defending the Alamo. The Alamo has come to represent the heroic struggle of its defenders against overwhelming odds, a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason the Alamo remains hallowed ground, and the Shrine of Texas Liberty. The Alamo is such an integral part of the city's history, San Antonio is nicknamed Alamo City, and features its most recognized landmark in its flag and seal.

San Antonio Lifestyle

With its blend of Hispanic, German, and Southern Anglo-American cultures, San Antonio has been called one of America's four unique cities (along with Boston, New Orleans, and San Francisco). Each group has made its mark on the city, its culture, and architecture, without overwhelming the others. Historically, San Antonio has also been successful in merging the past into its present. Modern glass structures were built next to Old Spanish walls, with rows of Victorian-era mansions just a block away.

San Antonio's job market is stronger than it ever was. In 2005, Inc. magazine ranked San Antonio fourth on its Top U.S. Cities for Doing Business list. Washington Mutual and Toyota took note. Washington Mutual, a major player in the financial services industry, expanded and opened its new regional operations center in San Antonio. The move will eventually mean 4,200 additional jobs for the area. Toyota opened an $800-million plant to assemble its Tundra trucks, creating an estimated 2,000 additional jobs.

Other contributors to San Antonio's diverse economy are the bioscience and health care industries, educational institutions, military bases and the tourism industry. The military presence in San Antonio is strong? with Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base, and Brooks City-Base. As the largest and only medical research and care provider in the region, the South Texas Medical Center, also has a positive impact on the city's economy. Home to River Walk, the Alamo, Tejano culture, and SeaWorld and Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme parks, tourism is big business in San Antonio, with an estimated 20 million tourists visiting per year.

San Antonio Culture

San Antonio's weather fluctuates between dry or humid depending on prevailing winds. Rainfall, occurring most in May, June and October, averages 29.05 inches per year. The average temperature for the months of July and August is a high of 95 degrees and a low of 74 degrees. In January, the temperature averages 62 degrees for the high and 39 degrees for the low. Only a few freezes occur each year and snow is rare.

San Antonio Performing Arts

The San Antonio Symphony, the city's only resident, professional organization in the performing arts, entertains patrons in the Majestic Theatre. Opened in 1929 as a grand movie palace, the theater also hosts individual concerts and touring Broadway shows. Recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1975, the theater is well-known for its Mediterranean-style architecture and twinkling star-lit sky (complete with projected clouds that creep across the ceiling).

In the city's other three major theaters, The Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, the Alameda Theater and the Lila Cockrell Theatre, supporters of the arts can enjoy a variety of productions, including ballet, opera, theater, touring plays, cabaret, and individual concert events.

San Antonio Historical Venues

San Antonio was one of the first cities west of the Atlantic seaboard to become conscious about preserving its history and architecture. The San Antonio Conservation Society, founded in 1924, was instrumental in saving the San Antonio River from being paved over for a drain.

For history buffs, San Antonio is paradise. A tour through downtown San Antonio is a journey through centuries of history. San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, one of a few urban national parks in the country, includes Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo), Mission Concepción, Mission San José, Mission San Juan Capistrano and Mission San Francisco de la Espada. Take a drive from the Alamo down the San Antonio Mission Trail, a nine-mile stretch that runs along the San Antonio River, to the other missions. Or travel along a hike-and-bike trail.

Fort Sam Houston, once graced by military giants like Pershing, Stilwell, Krueger and Eisenhower, also served as training site of the Buffalo Soldiers, the renowned African-American cavalry fighters who helped bring peace to the Western Frontier. Today, Fort Sam is headquarters for the Fifth U.S. Army and the Health Services Command and home of the Fort Sam Houston Museum and the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum.

La Villita is known as San Antonio's first neighborhood, a place where Spanish soldiers stationed at The Alamo could live. The area is now home to an arts and crafts community where locals and visitors can find an array of unique items.

Other historical architectural sights include the San Fernando Cathedral (1758), the Spanish Governor?s Palace (1749), and the Bexar County Courthouse (1891).

San Antonio Museums

San Antonio is home to several culturally and artistically significant museums.

The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, is the first modern art museum in the State of Texas. It was founded in 1950 after Mrs. McNay?s bequest of the majority of her fortune, a notable art collection, and her Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion and 23-acre, landscaped grounds and garden. The museum focuses on the works of 19th and 20th century European and American art by its masters Cézanne, Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, O?Keeffe, Rivera, Cassatt, and Hopper. The collection, with over 14,000 objects, is known as one of the finest collections of Contemporary Art and Sculpture in the Southwest.

The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures is all about celebrating cultures. Opened as the Texas Pavilion at the 1968 World?s Fair ? HemisFair ?68, the museum promotes the understanding of cultural history, science, and technology and their influence upon the people of Texas.

The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA), opened in 1981 in a renovated 1800s brewery. The museum's extensive collections are primarily Asian, Latino and Ancient art. But its permanent collection also contains significant collections of American, European, Oceanic and Contemporary art, including the works of Andy Warhol, John Singleton Copley, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Wayne Thiebaud, Frank Stella, and Philip Guston.

Established in 1926, adjacent to Brackenridge Park on the San Antonio River, The Witte Museum, is devoted to the history, science, and culture of the region. The museum's primary focus is natural sciences with emphasis on South Texas and the history of Texas and the Southwest.

Other museums include the Arts Pace San Antonio, the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Museo Alameda, The Southwest School of Art & Craft, and the Texas Transportation Museum.

San Antonio Dining/Entertainment/Nightlife

Home of world-famous, authentic, Tex-Mex cuisine, restaurants that serve it up can be found throughout the city. As expected in cowboy country, San Antonio has its share of barbecue pits, smokehouses and steakhouses. One might not expect to find one of the top-rated French restaurants in the country here in the land of Tex-Mex and longhorn steaks; Chef Andrew Weissman and his restaurant, Le Ręve, have been earning accolades since he opened in 2000: featured in the New York Times as a rising culinary star, named Sixth Best Restaurant in the U.S. by Gourmet magazine, and nominated for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef in the Southwest.

Twenty feet below the busy, city streets, the Paseo del Rio, winds its way down a two-and-a-half-mile stretch from the King William Historic District at its south end to the Municipal Auditorium and Conference Center at its north end. Best known as the River Walk, the venue and its scenic, cobblestoned-paths bordering the San Antonio River, lined with cafés, restaurants, nightclubs, and specialty boutiques and shops, is the state's second most visited attraction. Rio San Antonio Cruises offers a different view of the River Walk from the water. Also accessible by river taxi is Rivercenter, a tri-story shopping, dining and entertainment multiplex.

On the first Friday of every month, the King William District known as Southtown is the place to be. At the First Friday gallery walk, art lovers can stroll through Southtown's galleries, art spaces and vintage stores, check out the street vendors selling art and jewelry, and listen to live music played in the streets. The event is free.

San Antonio Shopping

With ten major shopping malls within a one-hour drive of Downtown San Antonio, shoppers can find all the top retailers and designers they fancy. Shopping districts in and near downtown feature more unique boutique-style shops, antique stores, and art galleries. Browse the El-Mercado, a century-old Mexican emporium, with 30-plus shops, and rows upon rows of booths of crafts, clothing and eats, and the nearby Farmer's Market Plaza for worldwide imports, Southwestern handicrafts, and Tex-Mex fare.

San Antonio Recreation

The San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department operates the City's recreational and cultural programs, maintaining 7,300 acres of land in 160 city-owned parks. Many of these facilities combine historical, cultural and recreational activities all in the same venue.

Part of San Antonio's landscape for more than a century, Brackenridge Park sits on the headwaters of the San Antonio River north of the city. The 343-acre park offers a variety of family-oriented recreation, featuring miles of biking and hiking trails, a golf course, picnic pavilions, athletic fields, and a 3.5-mile miniature railroad. The park's most popular attraction is the San Antonio Zoo, ranked one of the best zoos in the nation. The Zoo is home to over 3,500 animals representing 750 species of animals on 56 acres. Another park feature is the Japanese Tea Gardens, known by the locals as Sunken Gardens. Walkways wind through the Japanese-style gardens, past waterfalls, ponds and over bridges. Situated in an old limestone quarry, the site, originally designed and built in the 1920s, is a Texas registered Texas historical landmark.

Casa Navarro State Historical Park is the home site of Jose Antonio Navarro, a Tejano patriot, lawyer, member of the Texas legislatures under Mexico, Republic of Texas, and the State of Texas, and one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. The original complex, consisting of three limestone, caliche block and adobe structures, was built about 1848. A guided tour of Navarro's home offers lessons in Mexican history and the heritage of Texas, as seen through the life of Navarro, an influential political figure during the years when the destiny of Texas was forged.

Friedrich Wilderness Park is San Antonio?s only nature preserve. Located northwest of downtown, the 240-acre, heavily forested park features 5.5 miles of well-marked hiking trails. Known as a favorite spot for local and international birdwatchers, the park also offers places to picnic and opportunities for nature study.

Originally built to host the 1968 World's Fair, HemisFair Park has since been completely renovated and transformed into a unique city park. The new incarnation of the 15-acre park incorporates cascading waterfalls and fountains, lushly landscaped areas, restored historic buildings, and a children's playground, with the original symbol and landmark of HemisFair?68 ? the Tower of the Americas. One of the tallest freestanding structures in the Western World rises 750 feet to its top. From the tower's observation deck and revolving restaurant at 605 feet, visitors can take in a panoramic view of San Antonio.

San Antonio's theme parks are huge tourist draws. Among the most recent features is Fiesta Texas, a $100 million, 201-acre family musical and entertainment theme park. Sea World in San Antonio is the largest marine-life theme park in the world. Splashtown San Antonio is a family water park offering age-appropriate water fun. Every Friday night the park features a ?Dive-in? movie in the Wave Pool.

San Antonio's major annual events include the San Antonio Annual Livestock Show and Rodeo in February, Fiesta San Antonio in April, the Texas Folklife Festival in June, and the Riverwalk Christmas Lighting in December.

San Antonio Sports

The NBA San Antonio Spurs, the city's only top-tier professional sports team, plays in the AT&T Center. Since it first year of play in 1973, the Spurs have won three NBA Championships in 1999, 2003, and 2005. The Spurs share their home with the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League and the San Antonio Silver Stars of the WNBA, both Spurs-owned franchises. The city also supports the San Antonio Missions, a Double-A Minor League affiliate of the San Diego Padres and plays host to the NCAA football Alamo Bowl each December. In 2007, the San Antonio Steers, a minor league football team of the National Indoor Football League will begin play at the San Antonio Rose Palace in Boerne.

San Antonio, with its lush terrain, temperate climate, and the 300 days of sunshine a year, is becoming a popular golf destination. With a multitude of both public and private venues, the city has a course to fit every skill level and budget.

Those on course to relocate to a new city should consider San Antonio - rich and diverse in culture, history, art, and recreation. Its solid economy, low tax burden and variety of housing options make San Antonio a good place to find your new home.

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