Ludwig Mahncke

The park's donor had an unusual career. George W. Brackenridge, born in Indiana in 1832 and educated at Harvard, made money in the Matamoros cotton trade during the Civil War, left Texas after professing Union sympathies and served as a Treasury agent in New Orleans. He organized the San Antonio National Bank in 1866 and headed the San Antonio Water Works Company from 1883 to 1906. As a University of Texas regent he gave B Hall and 500 acres on the Colorado River, and in 1917 he offered to fund the university himself after Governor Ferguson's veto.

What the plaque says

Ludwig Mahncke was born in Mecklenburg-Strelitz (now Germany) in 1846. Mahncke married Katarina (Kemp) in 1871 and the couple had two daughters. The family left Germany and arrived in the United States in 1882, settling in San Antonio shortly after. Mahncke became a well known hotelier and restaurateur, and he was a popular figure in San Antonio business and social circles. He served two terms as a member of the City Council and chaired the city's parks committee. He was first appointed to the position of parks commissioner in 1901. Ludwig Mahncke was close friends with businessman and philanthropist George W. Brackenridge, and in 1899 he encouraged Brackenridge to donate to the city a tract of 199 acres along the San Antonio River, to be used as a park. As parks commissioner, the development of the site, later known as Brackenridge Park, fell to Mahncke, and he was directed to open the park immediately. Though he was first given a budget of only $2,500, he quickly developed a plan to create a "driving park," and seven miles of roads were designed and constructed. A fenced deer preserve was built by 1902, and by 1906 the menagerie included buffalo, elk, goats, sheep and fowl. While Brackenridge Park was Mahncke's most well-known acomplishment, he was also responsible for landscaping many public areas throughout San Antonio. Cypress trees transplanted from the Guadalupe River under his direction can still be seen today along the San Antonio River. After his death in 1906, a bust of Mahncke was erected in 1909 in Brackenridge Park; it was later moved to this park donated by Brackenridge and named in Mahncke's honor. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Alamo — 2.5 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.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — 2.8 mi
  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.
• San Antonio River Walk — 2.8 mi
  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.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 2.8 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

• Portland Cement Plants — 0.5 mi
• Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company — 0.5 mi
• Incarnate Word College — 0.6 mi
• Acequia de Arriba — 0.7 mi