Battle of the Flores
A Century of Development
The Battle of the Flores offers a digital representation of 100+ years of development along the south-central portion of one of San Antonio’s oldest main streets, South Flores.
This project is being carried out by St. Mary’s University graduate students Antonio Coffee and Victoria Villaseñor. Through the guidance of the City of San Antonio’s Office of Historic Preservation, we worked to evaluate a data set collected by the Office of Historic Preservation. While looking at the data set Victoria came up with the idea for this project. This project began as an effort to extend the representation of space and geography to areas that are not designated as “landmarks” but are historic, culturally influential and relevant.
The title of this project, Battle of the Flores, is a play on a popular San Antonio tradition the Battle of the Flowers. But, even more so, we are using the term "Battle" to describe the developmental activity that has occurred in this area over the past century.
Purpose
We began this project by asking how development has evolved along South Flores, and if this has altered the view of South Flores. We jumped into this project with the expectation that “development” solely included demolition and construction of buildings. However, the data that we’ve gathered to create this digital map has led us to re-examine the definition of development in relation to the activity that has occurred within this area.
In this case, “development” may include the construction and demolition as well as the refurbishing or reuse of existing structures.
We now come to ask how development within the South-central portion of Flores Street has changed throughout the past 100 or so years, and exactly what kinds of businesses have occupied the space? Furthermore, we invite viewers to ponder what these changes may represent in terms of the social and economic culture of this area.
View of S Flores Street from the Pleasanton Road intersection
Audience
We are creating this project with the hope of it reaching those who live and work on and around South Flores. We are aiming to provide context as to the changes that are happening on this busy street.
We hope that seeing the map and the information we present will open up conversations about development and what impacts this may be having on the community, both culturally and physically.
We also hope this information will be useful to those looking into the development of San Antonio. It gives an example of how a street changes over time and the different businesses that occupy it.
How to Use This Project
Below is the full layered map. We invite you to expand the map and select the different points to see more information on them. Many of the layers overlap with their points so be sure to use the arrows to see how a place changed over time. Explore the map and start to draw your own conclusions about what is happening to South Flores as time continues. Below the map we have separated each layer onto its own map if you would prefer to view them that way.
Why are we focusing on businesses?
We did not intend to have such a focus on businesses, but it happened naturally as we explored the data set. We noticed that most of the buildings in the data set were businesses. We have included residential buildings as well there are just less of them.
Battle of the Flores
Protection of Toudouze Building
Original Photo of Toudouze Building
One building down South Flores that has been in the news lately is 4007 S. Flores, located at where Pleasanton Road intersects. This building has recently received historic designation. Previous plans indicate that the owner intended to turn the property into a car wash. Reuse of this property has been hotly disputed throughout February of 2020. We found this article relevant to our project, as it showcases the ongoing structural changes along South Flores. More information on this case can be found at https://therivardreport.com/toudouze-building-owner-fights-historic-designation/
Bolner Family
Photo Courtesy of Bolner’s Facebook
While the street-scape has changed throughout each decade, Bolner’s Meat Company is one of the earliest remnants of South Flores’ geographic history. Opening their doors in 1909, this business has continued to occupy one of the oldest structures in our data set. Bolner’s Meat Market was recognized as a Legacy Business by the Office of Historic Preservation in 2018. For more information on their family’s history, you can go to http://bolnersmeatcompany.com/family-history/
Scope
Our data represents the south-central portion of Flores Street, beginning at the intersection of César Chávez Street and South Flores, down to the intersection of Division Avenue and South Flores. We specified this scope before we found the two surveys mentioned above. Drawing from her personal experience growing up along South Flores Street, Victoria recognized that this area in particular has evolved quite a bit and has been largely commercial. The area north of César Chávez Street venture deeper into downtown, and structures south of Division Avenue are mostly residential.
Our chronological scope is from 1920 to 2020. This decision to keep it to these years is based on the information we have available to us. The data we are using from the Office of Historic Preservation mainly covers buildings from this period of time. This also give us a look at a century of development.
Methodology
We have relied on two main resources for completing this project: A collection of building information conducted by Steve Sadowsky of the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) in 1998, and a reconnaissance of standing structures along South Flores between Malone Avenue and Octavia Place conducted by Sue Winton Moss in 2002. These documents are formatted as a catalog of building dates, types of structures, and businesses that occupied these structures at the times of each survey. We acquired these documents from the Office of Historic Preservation. The information for the change in business by 1951 came from the TXDOT packet and their study of 1951 Sanborn Maps.
Shortcomings
We have noticed that there are commas present in our zip codes. Please disregard them, we were unable to find a way to remove them.
The resources we relied upon did not include any buildings that were built after 1960. This means that there is a gap in our data set from 1960 to present day. To find the information on present day buildings we used google maps to locate buildings that are currently there.
We had originally wanted to include a discussion on gentrification as part of the project, but we realized that we did not have the time to find statistics on racial movement and displacement and to claim we were tackling gentrification without including this information would have been a disservice to the viewers and the integrity of the project. We believe that this area merits further discussion in regards to gentrification.
Further thinking
- At which points within the past 100 years has construction spurred rapidly, and what could this represent?
- What could the shifts in uses of these structures tell us about the evolving social and economic culture of this area?
- How has modern development altered the view of the street and the way it is experienced by residents?
- What could vacancy and demolition potentially mean for South Flores and similar communities? How is this different from reuse of an existing structure?