City of San Antonio
Parks & Recreation Department

Travis Park
Park History
300 E. Travis

The area including Travis Park was once part of the upper farmlands of Mission San Antonio de Valero (today called the Alamo). After the mission was closed, the land was sold to Francisco Garcia in 1819, and in 1851 to Samuel Augustus Maverick, who lived at the northwest corner of Alamo Plaza and used this property for his orchard.

After Maverick died in 1870, the land was deeded to the City, and an 1873 map calls the square Travis Plaza, named for Col. William Barrett Travis, commander of the Texan troops at the Alamo.

By 1876, the City had planted grass, installed wooden painted benches, and soon enclosed the park with a white-washed fence. Concerts were held in a fancy, Victorian-style bandstand. The fence was removed in 1891 to improve access, and the bandstand, too expensive to repair, was torn down in 1937.

The park's dense landscaping consisted of chinaberry and huisache trees, ligustrum bushes and 50 hackberries installed (on purpose!) for $1 a tree in 1883. The last of the hackberries was not removed until 1956 when the newspaper reported that "spectators looked on with approval."