Old Military Headquarters

The building was the work of three Irish-born brothers. William, James and John Vance came to San Antonio with Zachary Taylor's army in 1846, William as commissary agent, and settled for good in 1848. Vance and Brothers built the city's first army barracks, at present Travis and St. Mary's streets, and the two-story headquarters beside it, later the Vance House and now the site of the Gunter Hotel. The brothers ran stage lines, returned a boy rescued by Kit Carson to his family, and bought most of the army's experimental camels to sell to a circus.

What the plaque says

Old Military Headquarters In a 2-story stone building, afterwards a hotel, Vance House. Established as administrative offices for U.S. army during the Mexican War, 1846-1847. At this site on Feb. 16, 1861, Gen. David E. Twiggs surrendered $1,600,000 in Federal property to forces of Confederate Texas. For a year headquarters for Texas Military Affairs, which were later administered from Houston, Bonham and Shreveport. Site is part of complex of San Antonio military tradition that extends from early Spanish day, to the Alamo, to 20th century. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Fernando Cathedral — 0.2 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.
• The Alamo — 0.3 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.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 0.3 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.
• San Antonio River Walk — 0.3 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.

More markers nearby

• Travis Park United Methodist Church — steps away
• Saint Mary's, Old, Site Of — steps away
• Site of de la Garza House, Gardens and Mint — steps away
• Commerce Street Bridge — steps away