American Venice: The Epic Story of San Antonio's River

(Hardback)

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In American Venice: The Epic Story of San Antonios River, Lewis F. Fisher uncovers the evolution of San Antonios beloved River Walk. He shares how San Antonians refused to give up on the vital water source that provided for them from before the citys beginnings. In 1941 neglect, civic uprisings, and bursts of creativity culminated in the completion of a Works Projects Administration project designed by Robert H. H. Hugman.
The resulting River Walk languished for years but enjoyed renewed interest during the 1968 Worlds Fair, held in San Antonio, and has since become the center of the citys cultural and historical narrative.
The real story [of the River Walk] is a bit less Hollywood but far more interesting . . . With a growing number of cities facing issues of water supply, urban runoff, flooding, and ways of rebuilding better after a disaster, the San Antonio River Walk remains a great example of getting it right, writes Irby Hightower, co-chair of the San Antonio River Oversight Committee.
In this updated and expanded edition of River Walk: The Epic Story of San Antonios River, Fisher offers more fascinating stories about the River Walks evolution, bringing to light new facts and sharing historical images that he has since discovered. The update includes information about the Museum and Mission Reaches, two expansions of the River Walk that are vital to San Antonios continued growth as the seventh largest city in the country.
Fisher starts his story with the first written records of the river, in the 1690s, and continues through the 1800s and the flood of 1921, to debates over transforming the river and its eventual role as the crown jewel of Texas, and finally to its recent expansion. More than a community attraction, the River Walks banks are also a giant botanical garden full of plants and trees. Indeed, the American Society for Horticulture has named the River Walk a Horticultural Landmark. As Fisher says, the River Walk remains a work in progress, one forever precarious and unfinished yet standing before the world as a triumph of enterprise and human imagination.

Reviews

"Lewis Fisher has made a lifestyle and a living writing about San Antonio history, and in particular, its river." -- Texas Public Radio

Author Bio

Lewis F. Fisher first encountered the River Walk in 1964 as an Air Force officer trainee. He returned with his San Antonio-born wife, Mary, as a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. In 1971 he established a suburban newspaper company to publish the North San Antonio Times and in 1996 a regional book company, Maverick Publishing Company, which published forty-seven titles by twenty-seven authors before being acquired by Trinity University Press. His most recent book is American Venice: The Epic Story of San Antonio's River. Among his other books are Saving San Antonio: The Precarious Preservation of a Heritage, The Spanish Missions of San Antonio, and No Cause of Offence: A Virginia Family of Union Loyalists Confronts the Civil War. He is a former member of the San Antonio River Commission.