Later in our cross-country road trip this summer, we found ourselves in San Antonio, TX. Beginning in 1718, Franciscan missionaries from New Spain established a cluster of five mission communities among the indigenous Coahuiltecan peoples who lived along the headwaters of the San Antonio River in present Texas. Their efforts were encouraged by colonial Spanish authorities who sought to secure the northern frontier from the influence of French Louisiana. The area’s first of five missions, San Antonio de Valero (more popularly known later as The Alamo), was built at its present location from 1724 to 1727 and consisted of a walled enclosure with church, residences, and granary surrounded by ranches and cropland watered by a carefully constructed acequia (irrigation canal).
Mission San Jose; San Antonio, Texas
Mission San Jose Granary and Original Granary Doors
Mission San Antonio’s granary was one of several substantial rooms located in the northern portion of the spacious convento (later known as the Long Barracks after Mexican forces occupied the location in the 1820s) and is the state’s oldest extant structure. The Franciscans also established Mission San José y San Miguel de Aquayo several miles downstream from Mission San Antonio and built an enormous granary (c. 1747-1752) with vaulted ceiling and flying buttresses to support the thick stone walls that safeguard the annual harvests of wheat, corn, and vegetables. The mission’s nearby acequia-powered grist mill (molino) with horizontal wheel, constructed c. 1794 (rebuilt in 1930) was the region’s first mill. Covering the largest area of the San Antonio River missions, San José became known as “Queen of the Missions” for the church’s resplendent Spanish Baroque architecture and substantial plaza.
Missions San Juan Capistrano and San Francisco de la Espada were founded in 1731 on opposite sides of the river several miles south of Mission San José. Mission San Juan’s granary was completed by 1756 and rebuilt in 1824 on its original foundation as the mission church which functions to the present day. The imposing structure was painted by German-American landscapist Hermann Lungwitz (1813-1891) who studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts before immigrating to the United States in 1850. Lungwitz became known for his many detailed, luminous renderings of Texas Hill Country farms and ranches. Mission Espada’s c. 1762 stone granary was also used as a church in the 1770s and a new storehouse erected on the southwest side of the compound in 1773 to secure the harvests of grain, vegetables, and fruit. The Espada Acequia still carries water to area farmlands and is the oldest feature of its kind in the country.