Saving history, view is the goal for Scenic Loop
2/12/2009
By David Rauf and Elaine Ayo, Express-News
AUSTIN — A roughly 10-mile stretch of road famous for its Hill Country vistas made a nonprofit group's 2009 list of the state's most endangered historic places, preservation advocates announced Wednesday.
The section of Scenic Loop and Boerne Stage roads between Texas 16 and the Kendall County line is threatened by encroaching development from both ends, but committed groups of residents have fought to preserve the area's rural character.
For those reasons, the road was placed with 10 other sites on the list unveiled on the steps of the state Capitol by the nonprofit Preservation Texas Inc.
The group has compiled an annual list since 2004, selecting locations that reflect the cultural heritage of Texas and face the greatest threat of destruction or neglect.
This year's sites include a former elementary school in Houston, a nearly 170-year-old mission rectory in El Paso and a Bell County church that was built in 1874. The Scenic Loop/Boerne Stage corridor was the only one in the San Antonio area.
“It's never a given that these sites will be preserved, but it's our hope that through this effort we can help make that happen,” said Libby Buuk, the organization's president.
The Scenic Loop Road, a winding two-lane path that follows Helotes Creek and connects with Boerne Stage Road, was built in the 1920s as part of a driving route.
It became popular for picnics and weekend drives, said Charlotte Kahl, chairwoman of the Old Spanish Trail Centennial Celebration Association, a group that, in conjunction with the Scenic Loop-Boerne Stage Alliance, nominated the road.
“Every driver who had a car would drive this thing,” Kahl said of the complete loop on what's now Bandera, Scenic Loop and Fredericksburg roads.
Preservation advocates are hoping Wednesday's designation will help generate funds to preserve what they say is thousands of years of history along the route, including prehistoric archaeological sites, 19th-century rock structures and historic farms and ranches.
“We're hoping through this award we'll be able to get some grants, to create a buffer space to prevent subdivisions with thousands of cars,” said Jennifer Nottingham, president of the alliance. “We're being encroached upon daily by developers ... and we don't want to lose that history.”
The Scenic Loop Playground Club, a community of weekend cottage owners that formed along the road, laid the groundwork for what would become the city of Grey Forest in the 1960s. It's now a nonprofit homeowners' association.
“It became named that because it was windy and went through the Hill Country and had scenic views,” Grey Forest Mayor Don Darst said of the road.
But as northwest Bexar County grew, so, too, did demands to straighten and widen the road to four lanes to better accommodate traffic. Residents led a successful campaign in 1985 to prevent the widening, spawning organizations dedicated to protecting the area's cultural and natural treasures.
“I am thrilled with groups like this, (because) they cross county lines, they get together and look at what's best for everyone,” Darst said. “Sometimes it's better to keep things the way they are, believe it or not.”
The Boerne Stage Road section of the corridor was built as part of a highway called the Old Spanish Trail. That predecessor to Interstate 10 was the first paved highway for motorists to cross Southwest and Gulf Coast states was built between 1919 and 1929, Kahl said.
Other sites in the San Antonio area that have made the list in past years include the Gonzalez and Cyneo houses on the West Side, which date from the 1840s or 1850s; the John S. Harrison house in Selma, which dates from 1852; and the town of Quihi in Medina County.
Three sites in Travis County were also named to the endangered list this year, including the American National Bank building on West Sixth Street in Austin and the Hamilton Pool Preserve in Dripping Springs. Most notably, however, was the addition of the arson-gutted Governor's Mansion, which was heavily damaged in a fire last June.
Online: www.mysanantonio.com/news/Saving_history_view_is_the_goal.html
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