San Antonio Female Academy
This week as I was searching for a public history resource, I came upon the Portal to Texas History. This digital public history resource was created and maintained by the University of North Texas Libraries. As I was searching through the Portal, I came upon a photo that I was intrigued by and wanted to learn more about. The photo was a postcard from the San Antonio Female Academy which was also known as San Antonio Female College from 1894 until 1918. While the history of this college is interesting what interested me most was that this college was built in the Westside of San Antonio and yet seemingly had disappeared.
The first thought I had was that this must be the present day location of a current university but I could find nothing to tie the story together except for a generalized location of the Westside of San Antonio. I knew that it hadn’t been a part of St. Mary’s University , Our Lady of the Lake University or the University of the Incarnate Word, other local universities in San Antonio. After a little more digging with the Texas State Historical Association online, I learned that the San Antonio Female Academy changed names in 1918 and became known as Westmoorland College and then subsequently the University of San Antonio in 1937.
The University of San Antonio?
Finding out that San Antonio established a university in 1937 was a surprise to me. I know that I had never heard of the University of San Antonio and that the University of Texas at San Antonio wasn’t established until 1969. As I started digging further, I started looking through books on old San Antonio. One such book had the answer I was looking for and explained that Protestant colleges in Texas were starting to have serious competition among themselves and were better off merging rather than competing. (City in the Sun, Peyton, 228-231) This University of San Antonio became what is now Trinity University. I was happy for a moment, but then confused. Trinity isn’t anywhere in the Westside of San Antonio so what happened? Reading through Trinity University’s website, I saw that the Woodlawn Campus was the location until 1952 when Trinity University moved to it’s present location.
1952-2000-Making historical assumptions
My next step in this university mystery was to find out what happened next. While searching for vintage photos of Trinity University, I came upon this local article online that gave me the photos and answers that I needed. One of the photo captions the dorm at Trinity that was eventually sold to Assumption Seminary. To verify I went to the Assumption Seminary website and read about their history. Bingo! Assumption Seminary became the site of the former San Antonio Female Academy, the former University of San Antonio, the former location of Trinity University. Case closed, or so I thought.
incorporating history in our future
I figured surely there would be a historical marker or some way to recognize this history? I kept digging and came across this history column by Express News writer Paula Allen. The column explains the detailed history that the Assumption Seminary used the former residence hall and then re purposed for the Mexican American Catholic College until they moved their functions to a new building in 2000. At that point it became too expensive for the Archdiocese to maintain and after a mediation with preservationists they agreed to incorporate some details of the exterior into any new building or spaces on the property. While this story didn’t end with a plaque or historical marker, it is a good story to think about when reflecting on how we can lose our own history if we aren’t careful. How can we make sure to incorporate history in our future as we grow and progress as a city and a community?
Wow, it looks like you really did some digging! I think its super cool that you persevered until you found the answer to your question. It would be really cool to look into how the Texas Historical Markers get decided upon and put into place, as those can easily illuminate the history of a location for the more broad public. My mom would always insist that we stop at all of the historical markers any time we went on a road trip. Great post!
A very insightful blog post that really has taught me something new about San Antonio History. I never would have guessed a university that seemed to be large and influential in a sense fell off the face of the earth. I am glad some people are still trying to bring this lost San Antonio history to light. I do wonder though, what is in that area now and why this information may have been lost to us?