Landscape Information
Bounded by East Pecan, Jefferson, Travis, and E. Navarro Streets, this 2.6-acre park in downtown San Antonio is named for Colonel William Barrett Travis, commander of the Texan troops at the Battle of the Alamo. Once part of the farmlands of the nearby Alamo mission, the site was formerly owned by Samuel Augustus Maverick, lawyer and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, who deeded the property to the city upon his death in 1870. By 1876 the city had planted grass, installed wooden benches, and enclosed the park with a white-washed fence (later removed in 1891). Hackberry trees were planted in 1883 and later removed in 1956.
Slightly elevated above street level by two terraced steps, the grass square is interspersed with mature shade trees. Formal brick-and-concrete pathways lined with historic lamp posts frame the park’s interior boundary and extend like spokes from a large, central circle to the square’s corners and the midpoints of its edges. Semi-circular alcoves bounded by concrete walls radiate from the central circle like flower petals between each pathway. A 40-foot-tall granite spire topped with a statue of a Confederate soldier (designed by Virginia Montgomery and made by Frank Teich) was established at the center of the park in 1899 but removed in 2017, as were two Civil War-era cannons. Movable seating, benches, picnic tables, and kiosks were added in 2014.
