Mission San José: Cultural Landscape Inventory, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, National Park Service
James & Juarez, Contractor. 2013. Mission San José: Cultural Landscape Inventory, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 850149. NPS Intermountain Regional Office. Intermountain Regional Office/CLI Database
The 37.47-acre Mission San José, a component landscape of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, is a vernacular landscape located in the southern portion of the city of San Antonio, Texas. Mission San José is comprised of six sub-component landscapes and numerous features that contribute to the significance of the landscape as a whole. Mission San José consists of the re-created walled mission compound, including a church, convento, convento garden, sacristy, prefecture, soldier's quarters, granary, and Indian quarters. Smaller features of the site include wells and hornos (ovens), walkways, plantings, and a grass plaza. The mission landscape also contains the Visitor Center/offices, park entrance and parking area, and an open grass area south and east of the walled compound. A mill and lime slaking tank; an outdoor amphitheater and actors' dressing rooms; the Harris House, a 1950s residence remodeled by the park for use as an interpretive training and meeting center; and a parish complex are located in and around the mission. City streets encircle the mission holdings. A four screen drive-in movie theater located north of the park property is an intrusive visual reminder of the quickly development urban environment now engulfing the mission. There are two primary periods of significance: 1721 to 1794, marking the Spanish Colonial Period; and 1911 to 1941, indicating the 20th century period of historic preservation and re-creation. Along with the other missions in the park, Mission San José contributes to an understanding of the mission’s role in Spanish-colonial settlement of the American Southwest and San Antonio. The cultural landscape significance is associated with areas of American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, religion, and social history. In addition to its role as a frontier mission, it serves as an example of a significant historic preservation project merging private and public efforts. The WPA work on the granary was perhaps the first restoration project in the country completed by labor relief, retaining the Spanish-colonial revival style and representing an era when preservation decisions incorporated both aesthetics and historic documentation. The mission is significant for association with its founder Father Antonio Margil de Jesús, a Franciscan missionary who was presented for sainthood by the Catholic Church. It is also associated with the history of groups of Spanish colonizers and Native Americans. Additionally, the landscape offers significant architectural and design examples of Spanish baroque architecture on the frontier. The spatial arrangement of the buildings suggests their development and use, contributing to a fuller understanding of the Spanish-colonial mission in the region.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- James & Juarez, Contractor
- Date of Issue
- 2013-05-31
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Regional Office
- Units
- IMR , SAAN
- Keywords
- Agriculture, American Southwest, Ampitheater, Architecture, Bexar County, Chuch, convento, cooperative agreement, Designed Landscape, Ethnographic/Traditional Landscape, Ethnohistory of Indigenous American Populations, Exploration and Settlement, Father Antonio Margil de Jesús, garden, granary, Harris House, Historic Preservation, Hornos, Indian Quarters, Interpretive Landscape, Irrigation System, Military, Native American, parish, Prefecture, Re-creation, Religion, Sacristy, San Antonio, Social History, Soldier's Quarters, Spanish, Spanish-Colonial History, Stinson Municipal Airport, Texas, Vernacular Landscape, walled compound, Works Progress Administration, WPA