Auditorium Circle in San Antonio in Bexar County, Texas — The American South (West South Central)

Navarro Street Bridge

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, May 21, 2018

1. Navarro Street Bridge Marker

Inscription. San Antonio's population tripled to 161,000 between 1900 and 1920. Commercial and residential development boomed, and automobiles and streetcars clogged narrow thoroughfares. Local leaders recognized the need to modernize the outdated infrastructure and began a massive project to rebuild the city. During the years just before and after World War I streets were widened and extended, new bridges built, and the meandering San Antonio River straightened to relieve flooding that periodically devastated riverside homes and businesses. At this location a large bend in the river was replaced with a bypass channel, and the Navarro Street Bridge was constructed to ease travel to suburbs north of downtown. The old river channel was filled to create a large vacant tract of land that later became the site of the city's Municipal Auditorium.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Bridges & Viaducts • Man-Made Features • Roads & Vehicles • Waterways & Vessels.

Location. 29° 25.863′ N, 98° 29.403′ W. Marker is in San Antonio, Texas, in Bexar County. It is in Auditorium Circle. It can be reached from Navarro Street north of Hagner Arc, on the right when traveling north. Marker is located on the San Antonio River Walk, on the north side of the river, halfway between the Navarro Street Bridge and the Richmond Avenue Bridge. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: San Antonio TX 78205, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in South Texas.

It is also in the American South.

Globally, it is in North America,

a Gulf of Mexico state,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain,

the Republic of Texas,

and one

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of the Confederate States of America.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: The San Antonio River (here, next to this marker); Toltec Apartments (about 700 feet away); Mayor Maury Maverick Mural (about 700 feet away); The Hugman Dam (about 700 feet away); Missions in the San Antonio River Valley (about 800 feet away); a different marker also named The San Antonio River (about 800 feet away); The River in the 1900s (about 800 feet away); River Communities (about 800 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in San Antonio.

Another marker is no longer nearby. Site of Rincon/Douglass School (was about 600 feet away, measured in a direct line but has been replaced with another marker now near it).

Also see . . . José Antonio Navarro. José Antonio Navarro (1795-1871) was a Texas statesman, revolutionary, rancher, and merchant. The son of Ángel Navarro and Josefa María Ruiz y Peña, he was born into a distinguished noble family at San Antonio de Béxar in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (now the American city of San Antonio, Texas). Navarro was proficient

Marker detail: Future auditorium site in bend of river image. Click for full size.

City Engineer papers, San Antonio City Archives, Office of the City Clerk

2. Marker detail: Future auditorium site in bend of river

The curving meander in the San Antonio River between Lexington Avenue and Romana Street was filled in 1920. The future "coliseum or auditorium" site is seen in the bend of the old river channel.

in the laws of Mexico and Spain, although he was mainly self-educated. As a native Texan, he had a vision of the future of Texas like that of Stephen F. Austin. Navarro and Austin worked together to found the new state of Texas. (Submitted on July 3, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

Marker detail: Municipal Auditorium 1926 image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Courtesy: San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation

3. Marker detail: Municipal Auditorium 1926

A civic group calling itself the Coliseum League promoted construction of a facility for public gatherings on the river bend site, The Municipal Auditorium, dedicated to World War I veterans, was completed there in 1926 after the bend was filled in.

Marker detail: The Havana, 1914 image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Courtesy: Institute of Texas Cultures, San Antonio, 1914

4. Marker detail: The Havana, 1914

The Havana, a residential hotel built in 1914, became a riverside property when the new bypass channel was excavated in 1920. This picture, taken about 1926, shows the Havana between the river and the recently completed Municipal Auditorium.

Navarro Street Bridge Marker (<i>wide view; Navarro Street Bridge in background</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, May 21, 2018

5. Navarro Street Bridge Marker (wide view; Navarro Street Bridge in background)

Jose Antonio Navarro Mural (along River Walk, beside bridge) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, May 21, 2018

6. Jose Antonio Navarro Mural (along River Walk, beside bridge)

Navarro Street Bridge (<i>view looking south from marker</i>) image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, May 21, 2018

7. Navarro Street Bridge (view looking south from marker)

Credits. This page was last revised on February 2, 2023. It was originally submitted on July 2, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 1,133 times since then and 79 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on July 2, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 6. submitted on July 8, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 7. submitted on July 2, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.