Portland Cement Plants

The worked-out quarry here found a second life in the park. Parks commissioner Ray Lambert turned the abandoned cement pit, which had become a garbage dump, into the Japanese Tea Garden in 1918, with a lily pond at the bottom, planted islands, rock walkways and arching bridges. Japanese-born Kimi Eizo Jingu and his wife Miyoshi lived in a rock house on the rim and ran a tearoom in a thatch-roofed stone pavilion above the pond. Around the two surviving kilns, the old manufacturing ground became the Mexican Village in 1921, with artists' bungalows and a restaurant.

What the plaque says

Portland Cement Plants This is the site of the first Portland Cement Plant west of Mississippi River and the second plant in the United States. The company was incorporated January 15, 1880, under the name of Alamo Roman and Portland Cement Company. Cement manufactured here was used in building the State Capitol in Austin, the material at this site was exhausted and the operations of the plant discontinued in 1907. Mrs. Charles Baumberger, Sr. became connected with this company on October 28, 1880, and was in charge of the business until its close. Erected by the city of San Antonio 1944. Gus B. Mauermann, Mayor Alfred Callaghan-Paul E. Steffler. Henry F. Hein-P.L. Anderson Commissioners.

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.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 2.7 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.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 2.7 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 — 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.

More markers nearby

• Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company — steps away
• Acequia de Arriba — 0.4 mi
• Ludwig Mahncke — 0.5 mi
• Incarnate Word College — 0.8 mi