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OST100 News from 2007

December listing of 2007 OST100 activities

No November Meeting of OST100 - Observing the death of co-chair Marianna Jones

Minutes of the October Meeting of OST100 - Reach Out San Antonio (women in transportation) Luncheon

Report of the Summer Activities of OST100

Minutes of the June Activity of OST100 - Boerne Stage Rd. Tour

Minutes of the May Meeting of OST100 - Website Evaluation

Minutes of the April Activity of OST100 - Comfort Easter Walk

Minutes of the March Meeting of OST100 - OST Research Materials and Lecture

Minutes of February Meeting of OST100 -- Texas Highway Patrol Museum

Minutes of the January Meeting of OST100 - OST Research Information Collection

December listing of 2007 OST100 activities

At the end of each year we intend to list the new OST contacts. Groups we began working with previously are listed in the website NEWS sections February 2004 and December of each year 2004, 2005, and 2006. During 2007 we have added the following:

City of San Antonio:

Budget Hearings Districts 2 & 7

Bond Fund Priorities

Community Initiatives

Parks

Street & Sidewalks

Drainage

Form Based Development Seminar

Downtown Planning Summit

Incentives for Near Northwest Development

Housing Summit

San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside

Westside Multimode Feasibility Study

Bicycle Coordinator

VIA Regional Planning Conference

MPO Strategic Planning

TxDoT Feasibility Converse S. Seguin St. expansion

Ft. Sam Houston Traffic Study

SAWS Northwest Bexar County Planning

On & Off Fredericksburg Road Art Studio Tour

Aum Sat Tat Concept Therapy

Hill Country Planning Association

Drury Inns Southwest

Texas Highway Patrol Museum

Amphisphere Arts Foundation Woodlawn Theater

The Construction Specifications Institute

Texas Transportation Museum

ROADSHOWs:

Reach Out San Antonio women in transportation

Cibolo New Town Center Meeting

Comfort Volkssport Easter Walk

Camp Verde Volkssport Camel Walk

The Lodge at Leon Springs

OASIS

Founders Day

Texas Women's University Alumni

Elected Officials:

County Commissioner Lyle Larson

City Council District 8 Diane Cibrian

Staff of City Council District 10 John Clamp

Charlotte Kahl
Co-Chair OST100
(210)735-3503

No November Meeting of OST100 - Observing the death of co-chair Marianna Jones

In the mid-1990s the City of San Antonio began the total reconstruction of two miles of Fredericksburg Road near Zarzamora St. During removal of the old sidewalks, curbs and road surface materials, a stone bench was found at the corner of Vance Jackson St. with decorative scrolled ironwork around large letters "OST." Area historians scrambled to research the bench to determine its origin and importance. The long lost, overgrown bench captured the attention of San Antonio Conservation Society President Marianna Jones. Through community and city efforts, the Alamo Chapter of the Daughter of the Republic of Texas restored and celebrated the importance of the bench. Marianna went on to gather the support of Mayor Ed Garza and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff to create a task force to prepare for the centennial of the building of the Old Spanish Trail auto highway the bench commemorated. During her work with various city boards and commissions, and area civic organizations Marianna promoted the work of OST100. As we go to Mobile, Alabama in December of 2015 to reenact the planning conference that will kickoff the beginning of the OST centennial, and as we line up for the grande finale 2029 centennial motorcade from coast to coast we will be remembering the organizational and promotional skills of Marianna Jones who laid the foundation of the San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas OST100 that became the model for the other 67 counties in the eight OST states from St. Augustine, Florida to San Diego, California. C. Kahl

Marianna C. Jones
Marianna Chandler Jones, age 83, passed away on Monday, October 29, 2007. She was born on October 12, 1924 in Corsicana, TX. In June 1947, she married Jefferson High School alumnus and teacher, Roland Taliaferro Jones of San Antonio. She was a devoted wife, mother, educator and influential community leader, who actively furthered the causes of women in education as well as preservation of San Antonio's unique cultural heritage. With a BS in Library Science from N. Texas State Teachers College, and an MS in Library Science from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, she had a long and influential career as librarian at South San Antonio H.S. and Randolph Field ISD. In addition to traveling the world upon retirement, she continuously served multiple offices in such public-spirited local, national and international organizations as: The Woman's Club of San Antonio, Delta Kappa Gamma Society, National Library Assn., Texas State Teachers Assn., Super Adults of Laurel Heights Methodist Church, Society for the Preservation of Old Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio Historic Design and Review Committee, and President of the San Antonio Conservation Society. She was preceded in death by her husband, Roland T. Jones in 1993. She is survived by her son, Richard Chandler Jones and wife Nancy Ellen Jones of Crystal Bay, NV.; her daughter, Nora Ellen Boling and husband Charles Daniel Boling of Albuquerque, NM.; and grandchildren: Chandler Wayne Jones, Annamarie Brisbin Jones, Clara Katherine Boling and Charles Samuel Boling, as well as nephew Robert Earl Duckworth and niece Leslie Ann Earnhart of Sherman, TX. There will never come an end to the Good that she has done MEMORIAL SERVICE TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2007 2:00 P.M. LAUREL HEIGHTS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 227 W. WOODLAWN AVE With reception by LHUMC Super Adults to follow at 227 W. Woodlawn Ave., San Antonio, TX. In lieu of flowers, please consider the organizations listed above for memorial donations. Interment Wednesday, November 7, 2007 at 2:00 P.M. in IOOF Cemetery, Denton, TX. You are invited to sign the guestbook at http://www.porterloring.com/ Arrangements with Porter Loring Mortuary.

Minutes of the October Meeting of OST100 - Reach Out San Antonio (women in transportation) Luncheon

For October OSTuesday, October 9, 2007, OST100 partnered with Bexar Trails bicycling advocacy group to sponsor the luncheon meeting of Reach Out San Antonio - an organization for the networking and growth of women in transportation fields. Bexar Trails founder Dr. Bill Shea's wife Perny arranged the luncheon at Acenar Restaurant on Houston St. overlooking the river. Bexar Trails members Abigail Kinnison (San Antonio Bicycle Coordinator), Lydia Kelly (Metropolitan Planning Organization Bicycle and Pedestrian Planner), and Ingrid Etienne (The Nature Conservancy Legal Council) outlined for ROSA the importance of safe cycling routes during this time of air quality control, dwindling transportation enhancement funding and health concerns. Downtown Operations Department Director Paula Stallcup, the October ROSA Keynote speaker explained the oversight of "activities related to maintaining the core of San Antonio in an exemplary condition to support downtown facilities, programs and events that highlight the city's unique qualities."

C.Kahl

Report of the Summer Activities of OST100

Marlene Richardson, Mario O'Bledo, Jr., and Charlotte Kahl attend monthly HCPA meetings and those set this summer with city council and county commissioners court members to support the Hill Country Planning Association's efforts to preserve the natural beauty of northwest Bexar County. Also, input whenever possible (San Antonio Housing Summit, Downtown Planning Summit, MPO 30-Year Plan, Ft. Sam Transportation Study) encouragement for better mobility and residential housing downtown and in City South to relieve northwest growth.

OST Legislative Team has been meeting with intergovernmental liaisons to find effective ways to create ordinances, bills and other legislation to provide municipalities and counties development oversight authority to save the last few green hills over the aquifer, along the OST in NW Bexar County.

Our reSearch Team is working to provide factual OST information to authors preparing community or transportation history manuscripts.

Our Speaking Team continue to take the OST ROADSHOW wherever invited; indoors, outdoors, 20-minute breakfast, lunch or dinners, 2-hour seminars or all day exhibits.

August 2, 2007 City Council agreed to sell the Old Fredericksburg Rd. corridor of the OST at the southwest corner of IH-10 and 1604 to the Drury Corporation to make room for a Drury Suites Inn parking lot. In an attempt to limit such surprise developments along the OST in Bexar County, OST100 is working with various Council members and CoSA Planning and Development Services staff members to create an OST Historic or Scenic Corridor Ordinance insuring that OST100 will be notified of impending changes along the route. Drury SW has committed to include OST signage and information at their new hotel and will overlay the OST thru' their parking lot with Uvalde Asphalt simulating the highway materials used locally during the 1920s

Encouraged by David Toth, Ellen Ott of the Randolph Roadrunners asked Carlen Forinash to work with OST100 to create a Special Events Program for the American Volkssport Association. http://geocities.com/randolphroadrunners/ A new program approved by the TVA and hosted by the Randolph Roadrunners will begin January 1, 2008 and end December 31, 2011. This Special Program will promote walking events that run along or cross or are in very close proximity to any part of the Old Spanish Trail auto highway in the State of Texas. Participants must complete twenty (20) different walks to be eligible to receive the patch designed specifically for this special event. The point of contact for this event is Carlen Forinash at 210-493-8543 or cwforinash@yahoo.com.

We are also partnering with the Texas Transportation Museum on Wetmore Rd. at Wurzbach Parkway to include the OST in written materials. TTM http://www.txtransportationmuseum.org/ has offered OST100 a permanent display case. We will try to get OST information in place early in 2008.

The OST partnership with Bexar Trails cycling advocacy group also continues in support of efforts to extend Leon Creek Linear Park Hike and Bike Trail north of 1604 with private land donations, pro-bono trail designs and corporate funding to build and maintain the Bexar County section of the 3000-mile off-road OST Hike and Bike Trail. OST100 reps spoke at San Antonio Budget Hearings in various Council Districts asking for more cycling facilities.

Judy Jackman and Charlotte Kahl have been attending the meetings of the committee preparing the February '08 On & Off Fredericksburg Road Artists Studios Tour. http://www.onandofffred.org/ These events and partnerships; Transportation Museum Display, Volkssport Walk Texas OST, Hike & Bike Trails, Artist's Studio Tour will become models for other OST cities and counties on our Old Spanish Trail Centennial website. C.Kahl

Minutes of the June Activity of OST100 - Boerne Stage Rd. Tour

Thirty drivers got out of their cars to sign the attendance sheets at the various stops marked with red, white and yellow OST signage along the Boerne Stage Road corridor of the Old Spanish Trail Sunday, June 10, 2007. The self-driving tour is included at the end of this note for others who may want to view the sites along the OST that still remain from the days of stage coach and early auto travel. Architects Paul Barwick, Larry Travis and Dixie Watkins; archeologists Al McGraw and Lila Knight; historians Marlene Richardson, Charlotte Travis and Raymond Kirsch; and San Antonio Conservation Farm and Ranch Committee Chair Joanna Parrish were available during the afternoon to discuss various aspects of the sites on the tour.

Carol Shaner brought along American Volkssport Association materials to encourage folks to "walk the OST" and Scenic Loop/Boerne Stage Rd Alliance members Susan Beavin, Elaine Daniels, Jennifer Nottingham, Sarah Neimann, and Sandra Schneider set up a table at the corner of Scenic Loop and Boerne Stage Rd. to gather supporting signatures and educate the public about the need to actively work to save the natural beauty of those scenic roadways. Dixie Watkins graciously made his architecture website available for folks wanting to send notes of support to the Scenic Loop - Boerne Stage Road Alliance. The letter can be found at the bottom of the LINKS index on http://www.dwiiiassoc.com/.

SITES ON BOERNE STAGE ROAD

corridor of the OLD SPANISH TRAIL auto highway

beginning in Leon Springs on Old Fredericksburg Road June 10, 2007

ADDRESS		DISTANCE FROM CENTER LEON SPRINGS
east side IH-10 24059 Old Fredericksburg Rd	Log Grocery Store/Post Office next to stone Aue Hotel, both built during 1850s by Max Aue. Aue family log dog-run cabins are behind store	0.2 mi.
east side IH-10	Rudolph Aue gas station has become Rudy's General Store and BBQ Notice original tin ceiling of smaller overhanging roof above gas pumps	0 mi.
SE corner IH-10 & Boerne Stage	Historic Marker in Car Pool Parking Lot	0.1 mi.
	This Boerne Stage Road section of the Old Spanish Trail is on the Cibolo loop of Heart of Texas Wildlife Trail http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_trails/heart/hot_east/cibolo/	0.15 mi.
...24137	New stone entrance and white fenced lane to the former home of past San Antonio Mayor, present Bexar County Judge, Nelson Wolff. Owners of The Lodge at Leon Springs have given permission for visitors to carefully drive down the lane to view the white ivy covered home.	0.5 mi.
Baywater Stage Rd	KB Home has installed an OST Plaque just over the bridge next to the bronze Stallion guarding the entrance to Stage Run We have been invited to share cookies and restroom facilities in the Sales Center .	0.55 mi.
...24141	Log cabins of 1840s Leon Springs settlers, Prussian Army Captian. George von Plehwe and his bride. For this June 10, 2007 OSTour only, permission has been given by the management for participants to park along Boerne Stage Road and walk, at their own risk, back for a closer look at the cabins. If you do park on the wider gravel right-of-way on the north side of the road, use great care in crossing.	0.6 mi.
Breeze Oak sign	"BREEZE OAK" turn directional-sign marks the east end of old OST roadbed leading to original low-water-crossing of Leon Creek and adjacent Indian archeological site. Parking is safer east of the "BREEZE OAK' sign.	2.35 mi.
Scenic Loop Road corner	Turn right at "STOP SIGN" to continue on Boerne Stage Road.	3.15 mi.
28100 block at Dos Cerros Dr .	Stone fortress-like buildings can be seen from the end of Old Boerne Stage Road across from the entrance to Boerne Stage Airport . For the OSTour permission has been granted to enter the grounds. Please respect the privacy of tenants as you quietly view the historic stone buildings of the era of stage travel to El Paso and beyond. Restroom facilities are available at airport lounge in building marked with green PB logo.	5.65 mi.
...29310	Stone walls and caretaker's house remain on site of OST Park , built in 1927 for the OST Beautification Department through the efforts of the Bexar County Medical Society Alliance and other San Antonio and Boerne civic organizations. Park just beyond the " WATCH FOR WATER ON ROAD " sign, along the fence near the gate marked 29300. When viewing the site, please try to keep to the field near the creek. Altho' the cabin was built for the caretaker of the OST park, it is now privately owned.	5.65 mi.
Kendall County Line	On the north side of Balcones Creek is the remnant of a pair of stone County Line Markers. The 1920s OST Beautification Department would send blueprints to other counties along the OST wanting to build similar markers with native local stone to match these of the OST Headquarters Section. C. Kahl	7.2 mi.
	www.OLDSPANISHTRAILCENTENNIAL.com

Minutes of the May Meeting of OST100 - Website Evaluation

MayOSTuesday was a work session around Marianna Jones' dining room table, 2510 West Kings Highway, from 7 to 9pm, Tuesday, May 8, 2007. Marianna, Charlotte Travis, Judy Jackman and Charlotte Kahl reviewed e-mail evaluations of favorite (and least favorite) topics on the http://oldspanishtrailcentennial.com/ website, topics needing clarification or updating, and any other thoughts OST100 folks had about new items that would be helpful in telling the OST story. OST videographer, Rene Lagunas taped the meeting for use in the Old Spanish Trail Centennial Celebration Planning Documentary Video. C. Kahl

Minutes of the April Activity of OST100 - Comfort Easter Walk

OST100 is in the process of creating a partnership with the American Volkssport Association. Our first event, the 27th Comfort Easter Walk, although a cold rainy Saturday, April 7, 2007, was a wonderful success as far as the warm reception their club gave us as we shared OST information with their walkers. Organizers, John and Tina Bohnert and their cheerful Hill Country Volkssportverein (German for walking club) crew helped set up tables for our displays within the pavilion of Comfort Community Park on the Hwy 27 OST corridor. Charlotte Kahl marked the portion of the walk along the OST by wrapping utility poles along High Street with the red, white and yellow banded OST signage. Both Paul Barwick and Michael Ingraham braved the freezing rain to photo the courageous participants. Long term residents of Kendall and Kerr Counties were kind enough to mark area maps with the route of the early OST before the straightening and widening of Hwy 27, and tell stories of early auto trips. Volkssport Clubs of Southwest Texas held their meeting that afternoon to select dates for their club events for 2008. OST videographer, Rene Lagunas was able to get some good film of the event for our OST Centennial Planning Documentary.

The Kerrville Trailblazers invited OST100 to bring materials to the Camp Verde HOME OF THE CAMELS Walk, Saturday, May 5, 2007, near the historic Camp Verde General Store and park. That makes a very good walk next to OST Tourist Loop #10 to Bandera. http://www.walktx.org/KerrvilleTrailblazers/

As Centennial Preparations continue we will be encouraging the OST100 groups in other communities to participate with their AVA Clubs. These partnerships will be of great support in helping create the 3000-mile OST Hike and Bike Trail to be completed in time for the 2029 Grand Finale of OST Centennial Celebrations. C. Kahl

Minutes of the March Meeting of OST100 - OST Research Materials and Lecture

(Please find research materials lists posted at the end of these minutes)

A volunteer for State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, Terrell Baptiste generously drove from Austin, Tuesday, March 13, 2007 to open Representative Martinez Fischer's local Fredericksburg Road Office for our OST meeting held while the full staff attended to legislative duties in Austin. We thank the representative, his staff and dedicated volunteers for their continuing support of OST100.

The Bexar County Historical Commission has generously funded the digitizing of the St. Mary’s University Blume Library Old Spanish Trail collection from the 1920s OST Board of Directors. That collection being posted on http://library.stmarytx.edu/ost/ was organized for storage by archivist Brother Robert Wood. Other library, university, museum and on-line research sources collected by Our reSearch Team were displayed March 13^th and are now posted at the end of these minutes. We thank Charlotte Travis, Pat Ezell and Marlene Richardson for generously sharing their lists of materials used as they gather information and build the stories of OST people, buildings and sites.

This March Tuesday evening, Michael Ingraham, Ph.D., gave the first of several lectures on the Old Spanish Trail (OST) Association Headquarters Archive: Promotion of a Transcontinental Highway (1913-1933): Chronology & Context

In this first presentation the archive of over 1500 individual item was described in full—elementally and statistically--and its contents shown in relation to the astounding growth of U.S. highways and automobiles in the twenty-year period 1913 to 1933.

Ingraham inventoried and studied all items, including letters, maps, brochures, booklets, travelogs, bulletins, conference papers, financial documents and accounts, meeting minutes, news clippings, manuscripts, yearbooks, and others. Documents cover the tenure of the organization from its first headquarters in Mobile, Alabama to its decade-long stay at the Gunter Hotel, in San Antonio, Texas. Documents reference both internal (organizational and fraudulent) and external (promotional, socio-cultural) relations that reflect the successes and failures of this promotional effort to orchestrate, administrate, and build one of the first transcontinental highways in U.S. history.

Started locally, administered by association, and then countered by state and federal standards and bureaucracy, the OST Association held its own before dissolving in the depression. Dr. Ingraham showed that the thinking and planning set forth by the OST Association anticipated our current highway system displaying that the build-out of infrastructure has always lagged the demand for it. His sprinkling of quotes from archival letters of OST Executive Director Ayres, engineer Locke and other board members show the joys and frustrations during the decade of creating this grand highway.

Charlotte Kahl
Co-Chair OST100
(210)735-3503
with Marianna Jones

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Research Sources about People

OST Board, Beautification Committee, Association Members and Founders

http://oldspanishtrailcentennial.com/ 1920s Travelogs and lists of Founders

http://library.stmarytx.edu/ost St. Mary’s University Louis J. Blume Library – 1920s OST Membership Books and other archives Old Spanish Trail Board of Directors documents and letters. (in development stage but continually adding more materials)

http://www.sat.lib.tx.us/central/texana.htm San Antonio Public Library – Genealogy/Texana Dept

San Antonio Public Library Texana Room Obituary Files

http://texas.i-found-it.net/bexarahgp.html Bexar County History and Genealogy Project

http://genforum.genealogy.com/my/ Genealogy.com - Gen Forum

San Antonio City Directories from 1800s to present available in public libraries listing residences and places of business

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online Handbook of Texas Online - Articles about individuals, businesses, volunteer and civic organizations, etc.

Heritage Quest Online for census records of 1900, 1910, 1920 & 1930Family & occupation information

http://ftp.rootsweb.cem/pub/usgenweb/tx/bexar/cemeteries/citycem2.txt or /citycem1.txt

http://home.sats.rr.com/citycemetery1/e.html For information about burial places

http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ Social Security Death Index

http://www.familysearch.org/ LDS/Family History website: resource for 1880 census, plus other records

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/tx/txfiles.htm Rootsweb

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsearch.htm General Search page: Texas archives by county: Great resource for birth & death records by county

Also good resource for cemetery records that have been posted on-line by county

Individual surname search availability. Identify state or county and then search by surname

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txgenweb/ Texas GenWeb project

A history of Texas and Texans by Frank W. Johnson (1916) American Historical Society, Chicago ; New York biographical accounts of men of Texas

The new encyclopedia of Texas, compiled and edited by Ellis A. Davis and Edwin A. Davis and Edwin H. Grobe, (n.d.) Texas development bureau Dallas, Texas biographical accounts of men of Texas

Saving San Antonio: The Precarious Preservation of a Heritage By Lewis Fisher (1996). Texas Tech Press, Lubbock, Texas. information on ladies that became members of the San Antonio Conservation Society

San Antonio’s Monte Vista: Architecture and Society in a Gilded Age 1890-1930. By Donald E. Everett (1999). Maverick Publishing Company, San Antonio. information about those who lived in Monte Vista and their homes

Law and Liberty: A History of the Legal Profession in San Antonio by Jan Brendon (1996). Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas. information about those who were lawyers

Place Names of San Antonio: plus Bexar and Surrounding Counties. By David P. Green (2002). Maverick Publishing Company, San Antonio. information about those for whom streets are named

http://www.co.bexar.tx.us/historic/Center/center.htm for historic buildings in Bexar County

http://www.accd.edu/pac/history/rhines/Students.htm Palo Alto College – Small town history projects

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsaghs2/texas.htm San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society

http://www.thc.state.tx.us/ Texas Historical Commission

http://www.drtl.org/index.asp Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library

http://lib.ollusa.edu/libinfo/info/collections.htm Our Lady of the Lake Library Special Collections

http://www.texastejano.com/ Texas Tejano.com

http://lonestar.texas.net/~gdalum/archives.html Zion Lutheran Church – Archives – San Antonio, TX

http://www.cah.utexas.edu/index.php Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin

http://www.onr.com/user/cat/ Catholic Archives of Texas

http://www.thdi.org/ Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative of highly creditable sites sponsored by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. (in the development stage but continually adding more sites)

http://www.battersbyornamental.com/pianta.htm Many plaster building enhancements along the OST - Majestic Theater and building on Houston St. at Bowie were created in Hannibal Pianta's 300 Fredericksburg Road studio.