You don’t have to be any particular denomination — or any denomination — to be interested in downtown’s church architecture and history. The city's Office of Historic Preservation continues with its historic walking tour program.
"We’ve got Ursuline Academy, the Southwest School of Art, Central Christian, Madison Square Presbyterian, First Baptist Church, the First Church of Christ Scientist, First Presbyterian, Grace Lutheran, St. Mark’s Episcopal, Travis Methodist and St. Mary’s Catholic" said walk planner Nicholas Fuqua. "We’re going also look at some sites where churches and religious structures used to be. The old site of the Tempel Beth El."
People gather at 9 a.m. Saturday, pay their fee of $15, and then depart on shifts to take a walking tour of those designated historic places.
"The guides are just going to talk about some of the stories and the architecture behind some of those churches," Fuqua said.
Three of the churches will also have docents who will take walkers inside to see interior architecture and tell more stories.
"It’s about an hour and a half to two hours" said Fuqua.
"Rumor has it there is a jogging group," I said.
“There are," Fuqua said. "We have it divided up between running and walking. So we do have jogging guides available.”
The city has figured out that history isn’t just a stale, dusty commodity, but something people can have a passion for. But only if they’re exposed to it.
"We do about five or six of these every year, and focus on different historic districts" said Fuqua. "Texas Revolution Tour, we’ve done Monte Vista, King William. We have some interesting stories to tell. You’ll just have to join the tour to find out everything else."
The entry fee includes a “Know This Place” t-shirt.
- For more visit: www.sanantonio.gov/historic/events.aspx
