Groos National Bank

Frederick Groos came to Texas in 1848 with his father, three brothers and four sisters and lived first on a family farm in Fayette County. In 1850 he joined the San Antonio firm of Guilbeau and Callaghan and represented it in Eagle Pass, where in 1854 he married Gertrude Rodríguez. During the Civil War he moved to Monterrey, and he lived in Wetzlar, Germany, in 1864-66. Back in San Antonio he served on the school board and as alderman, presided over the gas company and the Casino Club, and led the German-English School for twenty years.

What the plaque says

Groos National Bank Founded by family that was first in San Antonio to engage solely in banking. Outgrowth of business begun by Frederick Groos (1827-1912), a graduate engineer and architect who came to Texas from Germany in 1848. During building of Fort Duncan in 1849, Groos had U.S. Government contract for freighting into Eagle Pass. His drivers--with 140 high-wheel carts and 280 oxen--braved constant danger from Indians, but the business was successful. Groos had branch houses in New Braunfels, San Antonio, and Matamoros, Mexico. His brothers, Carl (1830-1893) and Gustav (1832-1895), joined him in 1854, in merchantile partnership, F. Groos and Co. Primitive banking was a necessary side line of any frontier store; money was kept in packing boxes, or, for safety on the road, hidden in cotton bales or plugged holes in card axles. Bank clients in northern Mexico continued with Groos for generations. Firm moved from Eagle Pass to San Antonio in 1866. In 1879 it expanded by building on Commerce Street (across street from this site) the first structure in San Antonio expressly for a bank. Obtained a national charter in 1912. Descendants of the Groos brothers are active in the city today, and are represented in the management and ownership of the bank. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Antonio River Walk — steps away
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — steps away
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
• The Alamo — 0.2 mi
  Mission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 0.3 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Old Adobe — steps away
• Casino Club — steps away
• Site of the Home of Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Herff — steps away
• The Pajalache Acequia (Ditch) — steps away