This thoroughly-illustrated book sweeps away a morass of anecdotal misinformation to tell for the first time the full story of the evolution of a wayward stream on the frontier of New Spain into an architectural and engineering triumph, enchanting millions of visitors each year and a model for cities throughout the world.

Crown Jewel of Texas: The Story of San Antonio's River

History

Fisher, Lewis F.

Americas

Maverick Pub. Co

Maverick

This is a concisely written, lavishly illustrated account of the founding, growth, decline and restoration of San Antonio's five Spanish colonial missions, a national treasure. Built by Franciscan friars and their Native American charges on the far frontier of New Spain, they stand today as the largest cluster of Spanish missions in the United States. One is preserved as the Alamo. The others form San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

The Spanish Missions of San Antonio

In American Venice: The Epic Story of San Antonio’s River, Lewis F. Fisher uncovers the evolution of San Antonio’s beloved River Walk. He shares how San Antonians refused to give up on the vital water source that provided for them from before the city’s beginnings. In 1941 neglect, civic uprisings, and bursts of creativity culminated in the completion of a Works Projects Administration project designed by Robert H. H. Hugman. The resulting River Walk languished for years but enjoyed renewed interest during the 1968 World’s Fair, held in San Antonio, and has since become the center of the city’s cultural and historical narrative. The real story [of the River Walk] is a bit less Hollywood but far more interesting . . . With a growing number of cities facing issues of water supply, urban runoff, flooding, and ways of rebuilding better after a disaster, the San Antonio River Walk remains a great example of getting it right,” writes Irby Hightower, co-chair of the San Antonio River Oversight Committee. In this updated and expanded edition of River Walk: The Epic Story of San Antonio’s River, Fisher offers more fascinating stories about the River Walk’s evolution, bringing to light new facts and sharing historical images that he has since discovered. The update includes information about the Museum and Mission Reaches, two expansions of the River Walk that are vital to San Antonio’s continued growth as the seventh largest city in the country. Fisher starts his story with the first written records of the river, in the 1690s, and continues through the 1800s and the flood of 1921, to debates over transforming the river and its eventual role as the crown jewel of Texas, and finally to its recent expansion. More than a community attraction, the River Walk’s banks are also a giant botanical garden full of plants and trees. Indeed, the American Society for Horticulture has named the River Walk a Horticultural Landmark. As Fisher says, the River Walk remains a work in progress, one forever precarious and unfinished yet standing before the world as a triumph of enterprise and human imagination.”

American Venice: The Epic Story of San Antonio's River

Maverick Books

This coffee table book displays more than 100 rarely seen images to bring to life the frontier era of one of America’s most unusual cities, seen through its Spanish plazas. Colorful iconic paintings and drawings mix with 19th century photographic stereoviews and cabinet cards, cropped for impact and appearing with their original subtle tonings.As San Antonio’s frontier era was ending in the 1870s and 1880s, Military Plaza by day was a vivid outdoor market. By night it was a crowded dining venue where storied chili queens dished out spicy meals while saloons and fandango halls pulsed nearby. A cathedral dating from 1738 faced Main Plaza, where Apache chieftains and Spaniards once buried a hatchet, a lance, six arrows and a horse to signify peace. On Alamo Plaza, a demonstration of how barbed wire constrained a herd of cattle changed the course of the American West.Its plazas were the heart of San Antonio since its earliest days on the remote northern frontier of New Spain. Not long after a railroadin 1877at last provided easy access to the rest of the nation, rapid growth made San Antonio start looking more like cities elsewhere. Chili Queens, Hay Wagons and Fandangos allows us to picture the earlier, more colorful time. Illustrations are accompanied by descriptive captions and a concise narrative.

Chili Queens, Hay Wagons and Fandangos: The Spanish Plazas in Frontier San Antonio

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

This coffee table book displays more than 100 rarely seen images to bring to life the frontier era of one of America’s most unusual cities, seen through its Spanish plazas. Colorful iconic paintings and drawings mix with 19th century photographic stereoviews and cabinet cards, cropped for impact and appearing with their original subtle tonings. As San Antonio’s frontier era was ending in the 1870s and 1880s, Military Plaza by day was a vivid outdoor market. By night it was a crowded dining venue where storied chili queens dished out spicy meals while saloons and fandango halls pulsed nearby. A cathedral dating from 1738 faced Main Plaza, where Apache chieftains and Spaniards once buried a hatchet, a lance, six arrows and a horse to signify peace. On Alamo Plaza, a demonstration of how barbed wire constrained a herd of cattle changed the course of the American West. Its plazas were the heart of San Antonio since its earliest days on the remote northern frontier of New Spain. Not long after a railroadin 1877at last provided easy access to the rest of the nation, rapid growth made San Antonio start looking more like cities elsewhere. Chili Queens, Hay Wagons and Fandangos allows us to picture the earlier, more colorful time. Illustrations are accompanied by descriptive captions and a concise narrative.

Despite the image of a Solid South,” many southerners stayed loyal to the Union during the Civil War and coexisted uneasily with their Confederate neighbors. In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, the Lewises gave no cause of offense” but did not hide their beliefs, made clear to Stonewall Jackson as he made their home his headquarters. One family member, a delegate who refused to sign the Secession Ordinance, ran an iron furnace that kept dozens of Loyalists out of the Confederate Army.

No Cause of Offence: A Virginia Family of Union Loyalists Confronts the Civil War

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

From plazas of Spanish times to the River Walk, San Antonio enjoys a broad variety of historic public spaces, recalling the open landscapes Spanish planners had in mind when they designed the city. Later expanded, they still lend San Antonio a distinctive charm. Here they are uniquely portrayed in 167 vintage postcard images, most dating from the first half of the twentieth century, when these urban landscapes were in transition to modern times. Featured are evolutionary stages of three Spanish-era plazas—Main, Military and Alamo—plus the River Walk and Travis, San Pedro and Brackenridge parks, in addition to images of a half dozen more. Each chapter begins with introductory text.

San Antonio's Historic Plazas, Parks and River Walk: in Vintage Postcard Images

This elegant coffee-table volume displays more than 100 color photographs by architectural photographer Mike Osborne, providing a distinctive contemporary portrait of the five mission complexes, now partly restored, partly still in ruins. One, better known as the Alamo, is a memorial to its defenders in 1836. The four others comprise San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Each section begins with a dramatic 19th-century image. Osborne’s color photographs range from interior views of the Alamo to a mariachi mass at San José to a composite of rifle portholes in Espada’s bastion, with other dramatic views of the missions and related landmarks in between.

San Antonio's Spanish Missions: A Portrait

Religion & Spirituality

San Antonio’s five Spanish missions were being pulled from the brink of destruction a century ago just as picture postcards came into vogue. Alamo to Espada features more than 150 such vintage postcards to document the progress of the dramatic transformation, as well as the far-reaching impact of these architectural and religious treasures.The focus on individual missions is expanded in one chapter to illustrate the various ways the Alamo has been remembered  as a symbol of patriotism, place of pilgrimage and as an advertising backdrop.Another chapter gathers images of the legacy of mission architecture, showing design elements of the Alamo and other missions replicated in often unusual ways in railroad stations, hotels, beer gardens, burial parks and country clubs.

Alamo to Espada: A Vintage Postcard Profile of San Antonio's Spanish Missions

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fisher, Lewis F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fisher, Lewis F.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fisher, Lewis F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Crown Jewel of Texas: The Story of San Antonio's River

Crown Jewel of Texas: The Story of San Antonio's River

The Spanish Missions of San Antonio

American Venice: The Epic Story of San Antonio's River

Chili Queens, Hay Wagons and Fandangos: The Spanish Plazas in Frontier San Antonio

Chili Queens, Hay Wagons and Fandangos: The Spanish Plazas in Frontier San Antonio

No Cause of Offence: A Virginia Family of Union Loyalists Confronts the Civil War

San Antonio's Historic Plazas, Parks and River Walk: in Vintage Postcard Images

San Antonio's Spanish Missions: A Portrait

Alamo to Espada: A Vintage Postcard Profile of San Antonio's Spanish Missions