A Reconsideration of the Survey of the Villa de San Fernando de Béxar in 1731

The plan of the two plazas ofVilla de San Fernando de Béxar in 1767. Reproduced with the permission ofthe British Library. Unless otherwise noted, all drawings are by the author. A Reconsideration ofthe Survey ofthe Villa de San Fernando de Béxar in 173 1 James E. Ivey* When the Villa de San Fernando de Béxar was founded next to the Presidio de San Antonio de Béxar in 1731, Juan Antonio Pérez de Almazán, captain of the presidio, prepared a clear narrative for laying out the plaza and streets, distributing town lots to the new residents, and surveying the lands of the villa. However, a comparison of this proposal with maps of San Antonio made thirty years later demonstrates that no trace of Pérez de Almazán's intentions can be seen in the actual plan of the villa.1 How can this difference between the narrative and subsequent survey and the later actual plan of the town be explained? As part of an effort to establish new towns on the northern frontier of New Spain, settlers from the Canary Islands were brought over. An examination of available evidence demonstrates that the islanders, for whom the new villa was to be established, elected to lay out their own plaza and principal lots within the already existing plan of the settlement rather than undertaking the laborious process oftearing down the old structures and building an entirely new town based on Almazán's plan. This meant that the central area ofmodern San Antonio does not reflect the plan of 1 73 1 , which was based on orders *James E. "Jake" Iveyis a research historian for die lntermountain Regional Office ofdie National Park Service in Santa Fe. He was a contract historical archeologist in Texas for ten years, worked on several Alamo excavaüons, and has specialized in the cultural and architectural history of die Spanish colonial soudiwest. He is finishing his Ph.D. in Spanish colonial architectural history. The author wishes to thank Lee E. Goodwin for her help in understanding some ofdie documentation used in diis article and Frank de la Teja for his advice and his guidance to manuscript material in die Texas General Land Office, die Center for American History, and the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. 1 See "Piano de la Villa y Presidio de S. Antonio de Vejar," ca. 1767,Joseph de Urrutia, in Max Moorhead, The Presidio, Bastion ofthe Spanish Borderlands (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975), 156, plate 2 1; and Captain don LuisAntonio Menchaca, "Mapa del Presidio de San Antonio de Bexar, y sus Misiones de la Provincia de Texas, Fiho en 24 del Mes de Marzo de 1764, Por el Capitan Don Luis Anttonio Menchaca que lo es del diho Presidio," copy in files ofSan Antonio Missions Natíonal Historical Park. Copies ofbodi ofdiese maps are inJesus F. de la Teja, SanAntonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995), 56-57 and 60-61, respectively. Vol. CXI, No. 3 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January, 2008 252Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary Figure 1 . Plaza de las Islas, Main Plaza, San Antonio, Texas, looking northwest. The Bexar County Courthouse is on the left of the picture, and the cadiedral is visible on the west side of the plaza. The cathedral encloses the site of the original parish church of San Antonio. Military Plaza, the second site selected for the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar in 1722, is to the west behind the church. Photograph by the author. of the viceroy and the provisions of the Laws of the Indies, but rather on a modified version of the town plan that grew up around the presidio after it was moved to its final location in 1722 (see Figure 1). The story of the creation of the Villa de San Fernando de Béxar has been told in several places. The better-known articles and books that deal specificallywith the establishment ofthe villa are those ofI.J. Cox in 1899, Mattie Alice Austin in 1905, Carlos Castañeda in 1936, Lota M. Spell in 1962, Gilbert R. Cruz in 1988...