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these barracks. They resided on St. Mary Street. It was in San Antonio that both
these famous and much loved Southern soldiers decided to cast their fate with the
Confederacy.
St. Marys's Church, in which have been celebrated some of the most fashion-
able weddings in the city is on St. Mary Street, about half a block from Houston.
St. Mary's College for boys and the home of the Oblate Fathers adjoin St Mary's
Church.
The old Mahncke Hotel and the old barracks are soon to be razed to make place
for a modern ten story fire-proof hotel to cost more than $1,000,000. Opposite the hotel,
on the same side of Houston Street is the Odd Fellow's Hall which contains the
Mahncke Apartments, besides a spacious lodge room used for the regular meetings of
the Lodge and for numerous social functions. Opposite this Hotel will be found the
Majestic theatre, devoted exclusively to vaudeville. The theatre they occupy is the old-
est place of amusement in the city, it having been San Antonio's first theatre. This
however, is to be torn down to make room for a new modern theatre building.
SOLEDAD STREET marks the beginning of the boundary of a territory as fruit-
ful in historical incidents and stirring scenes of war as those which occurred in the im-
mediate neighborhood of the Alamo. From the corner of Houston and Soledad Streets
on around the loop which takes the car into Main Avenue and back into Houston Street
is a small area of territory, every foot of which was desperately fought for on several
occasions by the patriotic Texans. It was in this space that Ben Milam's troops fought
inch by inch their final contest with the Mexicans, which resulted in the capture of San
Antonio by the Texans, although it cost the life of brave Ben Milam.
MAIN PLAZA was originally laid out by the Spaniards in 1731 for the residences
of colonists, and was named "La Plaza de la Constitucion," afterwards changed to "La