Mission Espada: 1731-1824

Mission Espada: 1731-1824. . Mission Espada, The Southernmost of San Antonio's five Spanish missions, was established here on the west bank of the San Antonio River in 1731. The small missionary-led community first built crude huts (jacales) that were later replaced by sturdier structures. A stone chapel was completed by the middle 1740s and work continued on a wall to protect against hostile Indian raids. Other structures included the convento, Indian houses, and workrooms for cooking, weaving, and grain storage. A stone dam three miles upstream from Espada diverted river water into a hand-dug ditch (acequia) and carried it to the mission for agricultural and household use. Missionaries acquired Rancho de las Cabras (the Goat Ranch) some thirty miles from here in the 1760s to care to for Espada's growing herds of livestock. At its peak the mission had a population about two hundred residents. Beginning in the 1790s the mission and its surrounding lands were transferred to the community in a process called secularization. Cattle and other goods were distributed to residents, some of whom continued to live and farm nearby. The mission structures fell into disrepair and most were abandoned by 1824 when the process of secularization was completed., Captions , Top: Mission Espada, seen here in a painting by Theodore Gentile, traces its origin to Mission San Francisco de los Tejas, the first Spanish mission established in East Texas in 1690. The mission was relocated several times before being re-established here as Mission Espada in 1731. , Courtesy: Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo. , Bottom 1: This drawing illustrates how the Espada Acequia and fields might have appeared during the mission period. As seen here, wooden sluice gates were used to control the flow of water into the acequia and its side channels. , Courtesy: National Park Service. , Bottom 2: Missionaries and Indians who converted to Christianity (neophytes) lived and worshipped within the walled compound at Mission Espada The mission was documented in the 1930s for the Historic American Buildings Survey, a program to record the country's architectural heritage. , Courtesy: Historic American Building Survey, Library of Congress