Changed circumstances and new discoveries

It will take a somewhat round-about story to explain the pictures in today's blog post, photos of a lovely gem that I—rather shamefacedly—only recently discovered.

The Library branch I normally patronize—that provides me with tangible books and DVDs practically at the snap of my fingers—is just a few blocks from my house, walking distance even in the summer heat. Plus it has a great playground that is very popular with permanent residents of the neighborhood as well as visitors from New England. [Note: When looking for previous posts about this Library and its grounds, I just realized that I haven't done any! geeez! that will have to be remedied this fall!]

Anyway, they are renovating this lovely old building over the summer, and while its playground and the convenient bookdrop are still open, I can't get inside to pick up my requested volumes. So I've pressed the next closest branch into service...

It's not too much further away, but definitely not summer-walking distance. However, it's part of a large complex of public areas, some of which I'll be showing you below.

One of them is here, the San Pedro Playhouse (which happened to be the setting for our local march in support of science).

Since there aren't a lot of plays going on during the week, when I usually need to visit the Library, and since it's just far enough away to provide a summer-appropriate amount of exercise, I've started parking at the Playhouse and walking over to the Library.

And in the process, I've discovered the absolute jewel that is San Pedro Springs Park. Wow! I can't believe this lovely, and historically significant, campus was a surprise to me! Some Hometown Tourist I am!

The first thing that you see heading south from the Playhouse parking lot is this amazing aquamarine shimmer, through the trees...

It's an enormous, and gorgeous pool that has seemed, at least when I've been walking by, to be seriously underutilized. Here's a look from pool level:

Astute readers will also notice another big plus for the area: fabulous trees. The ones on the right above keep a good chunk of the pool shaded, which is nice when it's really hot and sunny. And here's a real behemoth just a few yards away...

Another eye-catching feature is the gazebo, providing yet more welcome shade. Here's what it looks like from the down at pool level...

...and here's what the pool looks like from under the gazebo's handsome roof...

But the most surprising sight on my walk is this...

It's actually not one of the eponymous springs, as I originally thought, but a Victorian-era "grotto" constructed at one point during this site's long, long history of bringing cool relief to denizens of the region.

This website about our local aquifer will give you more information about the springs themselves than you probably want, but the historical marker at the site sums it up rather impressively...

Yes, that does say the park was established in 1729, making it the second-oldest public park in the U.S., after Boston Common. The springs were named even earlier, in 1709.

This handy slideshow provided by our local paper will show you scenes of the park during a good part of its illustrious history. 

Although it doesn't solve the mystery of this small building in the Library's back yard...

Apparently the experts can't decide if it was part of a colonial structure, a warehouse, or a feature in an Victorian amusement park that occupied the site in the mid-1800's. You can read more about the various theories here, also courtesy of the San Antonio Express-News.

Mysteries or no, discovering this gem of an attraction, not three miles from my house, was both a humbling and an exhilerating experience. I think that we San Antonians, being rather more awash in historically significant sites than residents of most major cities, tend to take that for granted sometime!