T. C. Frost Wool Warehouse

Frost came to wool by way of Latin and the law. Born in Jackson County, Alabama, in 1833, he graduated from Irving College in Tennessee and taught Latin at Austin College in Huntsville from 1854. He read law in Sam Houston's office, practiced in Comanche County and signed the Articles of Secession in 1861. After the war he refused the oath of allegiance to the Union and so could no longer practice law, which sent him into freighting and then trade. His wool business began after the death of his brother and partner, John.

What the plaque says

T. C. Frost Wool Warehouse A former Texas Ranger and confederate soldier, Thomas C. Frost (1833-1903) began wool commission business as part of his mercantile enterprise in the 1870s. He purchased wool from producers throughout the state and stored it in warehouses on this site until prices increased. His storage facilities enabled wool producers to avoid selling their crops when the market was low, thus building up the industry. Frost gradually began to act as a banker for his customers and eventually gave up his other businesses to create the Frost National Bank. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Fernando Cathedral — steps away
  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 — steps away
  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.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• San Antonio River Walk — 0.4 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

• The Woll Invasion — steps away
• Surrender of Federal Forces by General David E. Twiggs — steps away
• T. C. Frost and the Frost Bank — steps away
• Site of de la Garza House, Gardens and Mint — steps away