San Pedro Creek Culture Park Celebrates Completion of Phase 1
By DON MATHIS
The party starts Friday, Oct. 14 with a lighting ceremony at 6:00 p.m. at the San Pedro Creek Culture Park in downtown San Antonio, which runs along the creek from 600 Santa Rosa Street to 200 César E Chávez Blvd. URBAN-15 kicks off this free event with the interactive light, sound, and kinetic artwork, “Stream,” by Brooklyn artist Adam Frank.
The festivities continue Saturday, Oct. 15 with family fun beginning at 9:00 a.m. The San Antonio River Authority (SARA) will have a Discovery Hunt for the kids and guided tours for the history buffs. Multiple stages along a mile stretch of the Culture Park will feature the Mission Indians and the McCollum Mariachis, stories by Say Si Students and sounds from the SA Symphonic Band. Politicians, public artists, and poets will be there to enlighten and entertain as well.
The Culture Park is a multi-phased and multi-year joint project of Bexar County, the River Authority, and the City of San Antonio. SARA’s General Manager Derek Boese said that the San Pedro Creek Culture Park is the embodiment of the San Antonio River Authority’s core values of safe, clean, and enjoyable.
“The innovative engineering and architecture practices of the Culture Park incorporate sustainable development practices, and low impact development aspects to achieve flood control and stormwater quality management,” Boese said. “The Culture Park is also a demonstration of the significant achievements that result from a united goal of the River Authority, Bexar County, and the City of San Antonio.”
People were looking at ‘doing something about that dirty creek’ as part of the Westside Creeks program that began in 2007. The idea of a Culture Park began in 2008 with Jerry Geyer (now co-chair of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park Citizens Advisory Committee), his wife Rosemary (a descendant of the Canary Island settlers), and five other citizens interested in the history and preservation of the stream. The creek was nothing more than a drainage ditch then, long the subject of discontent.
“We were led by Roberto Rodriguez, ‘Father of the Westside Creeks,’ and Robert Ramirez and Olga Lizcano, Co-Chairs of the Westside Creeks Oversight Committee,” Jerry Geyer said. “We made the rounds to various City and County offices. And we kept revising and improving our plan until finally, County Commissioner Paul Elizondo and Judge Nelson Wolff got on board.
“And it wasn’t only us, because doing something about the creek was an idea whose time had come,” Geyer said. “Lots of folks wanted to work on this project. Some of it was personal—Commissioner Elizondo often reflected fondly upon catching crawdads on the San Pedro Creek as a child. Former SARA leader, Suzanne Scott, was passionate about getting this project moving, and she had loads of respected experience due to successful projects her agency completed on the Museum Reach and the Mission Reach projects on the San Antonio River,” Geyer said.
In 2015, SARA invited citizens to offer feedback and suggestions on what was to become a world-class linear park. The public was informed that improvements along the arroyo will primarily be for flood control (30 acres of the creek channel laid within the 100-year flood plain).
The biggest input from the public was the desire to tell the story of San Antonio, from the days of Yanaguana, and later the Spanish and Mexican eras, including the history of the original Westside. The people also wanted more natural design features and a focus on water and green space.
Some residents welcomed the idea of a dog park and a children’s playground. Others wanted picnic areas and bike lanes. Some were concerned about delays if the digging unearthed ancient artifacts.
A trove of Spanish objects was discovered in the middens behind the Spanish Governor’s Palace but the main slow-down, apart from the pandemic, was the unearthing of the 19th century ruins of Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church near Houston Street. A date of 1875 was found on a stone of the church founded by former slaves. The site has been buried under a parking lot for generations. A government review was necessary for consideration for the National Register of Historic Places.
The City donated the majority of land along the waterway while Bexar County became the major contributor to the San Pedro Creek Improvements Project with a promise of $125 million. The project has since increased to a price tag of $300 million. Plans have changed countless times since they were conceived but the objective remains constant. And a lot has been added to the project over the years to optimize so much adjacent downtown development drawn to the creek area.
“Our mission is to create a world class linear park that represents the cultural identity of our community and inspires the people of Bexar County,” Suzanne Scott said in 2015. “This will be a place for the local residents to live, to work and to play.”
A secondary goal of SARA was to improve aquatic restoration. A third goal is the economic ripple effect, such as the boom of construction after the completion of the Museum Reach.
“The project input is $175 million but the total output will be from $895 million to $1.5 billion,” Scott said in 2015 about the creek project.
Phase 1.1 of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park opened just in time for San Antonio’s tricentennial celebration in 2018. Ceramics by Diana Kersey, images by Adriana M. Garcia and Joe Lopez, mood-enhancing murals by Katie Pell and Alex Rubio, tilework by Michael Menchaca, and poetry by John Phillip Santos, adorn this section of the creek.
The Martin Street span over San Pedro Creek has been called The Bridge with Four Names.” Medallions made by Kersey recall Father Hidalgo, the hero of the Mexican Revolution; Albert Martin, a leader in the Texas Revolution; 3rd Avenue, the outskirts of town at one time; and Lake View Drive, the avenue to a 19th century suburb. The bridge with four names takes but a few seconds to drive across, but take a few minutes to study Kersey’s ceramics – they will hint at the history of hundreds of years.
Phase 1.2 and 1.3 will feature artwork by local and national artists, like “La Gloriosa Historia de San Pedro Creek on My Mind.” by Kathy and Lionel Sosa, which features five ceramic murals behind the Spanish Governor’s Palace. Adam Frank’s “Stream,” near the entrance to Texas Public Radio, converts sound into a visual light display along a 250-foot water wall. “Creek Lines” by the Bridge Projects is another recent art acquisition.
Sources said more artwork is to come, including statues of local dignitaries that will be placed along the San Pedro Creek between Dolorosa and Nueva Streets. Armando Hinojosa (creator of the Founders Monument in front of the Courthouse) is working with the Larry Stevens Foundry in Bulverde to create a memorial to honor Nelson Wolff who served as San Antonio’s mayor in the 1990s and as Bexar County Judge for the past 21 years.
The new section of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park will pass by numerous historical sites, both old and new. The Alameda Theater sits across the creek from the footprint of the St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church, which itself rests upon the previous site of a brewery, an ice company, and before that, a soap factory.
The Spanish Governor’s Palace sits between the creek and City Hall with the De La Garza House and the O. Henry House just a block away. Antonio Coffee, an educator and interpreter for the Texas Historical Commission, said the buildings surrounding Casa Navarro have nestled along the creek since the early 19th century.
“The original house was built in the 1830s,” Coffee said. “José Antonio Navarro bought the old house, added to it, and built his two-story mercantile store in the 1850s. The grounds were designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016,” he said.
Texas Public Radio recently moved into the new Irma and Emilio Nicolas Media Center adjacent to San Pedro Creek while the new UTSA School of Data Science and National Security Collaboration Center will welcome students in January 2023.
And the new Federal Courthouse (between the creek and Santa Rosa Street) opened last winter. It houses the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Public Defender, Federal Probation and Pretrial Services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the General Services Administration.
The ripple effect, the economic development along the arroyo forecasted by Suzanne Scott seven years ago, is flowing merrily along the stream.
Phase 2, 3, and 4 of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park are in planning or under construction. Eventually, all the creeks on the Westside: Alazán, Apache, Martínez, and Zarzamora creeks – will have paved trails that connect to the walkways of San Pedro Creek. And a channel along Savings Street to link the San Pedro to the San Antonio River is being studied.
The San Pedro Creek has attracted settlers to this valley for millennia and continues to enhance the vitality of our life today.
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The lighting ceremony will be on the plaza by Texas Public Radio (320 W Commerce St.) Oct. 14, 6:00 p.m. Don Mathis will host a poetry reading celebrating the San Pedro Creek at the Nueva Street Bridge (200 W. Nueva) Oct. 15, 1:20-2:00 p.m. A Virtual Tour of Phase 1.1 can be found at https://spcculturepark.com/visit/self-guided-tour/ . Visit https://spcculturepark.com/grand-opening-completion-phase-1/ for the weekend celebration schedule of the completion of Phase One of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park. For parking, visit https://spcculturepark.com/visit/parking-directions/
Politicians will be there to “entertain and enlighten”?