San Antonio Turns 300

The city of San Antonio is spending the year celebrating its 300th birthday, with events focused on history, education, arts, and culture scheduled for the entire year. The city also just wrapped up its Commemorative Week, which celebrated the key milestones in the city's creation 300 years earlier. The San Antonio 300 website explains:

On May 1, 1718 the Mission San Antonio de Valero – later known as the Alamo – was established. Four days later the Presidio San Antonio de Bejár was formed to protect the new mission. San Antonio’s five area missions are Texas’ only UNESCO World Heritage site and will be at the forefront of many activities during the Tricentennial year.

The Texas Monthly spent the month of April running a series of articles to capture the city at 300.

A massive urban renewal project that’s reviving plaza culture. An Alamo fight centuries in the making. Avant-garde Mexican food inspired by Maya trade routes. From billionaire Kit Goldsbury to artist Ana Fernandez to former NBA All-Star Tim Duncan, seventeen San Antonians talk about why the historic city might be the most interesting place in America right now. 

The articles are collected on the same web page, but we recommend starting with Robert Rivard's story about the ongoing evolution of the Alamo, described as besieged by "commerce and schlock" with "all the gravitas of a saloon." The Alamo Master Plan Management Committee is working hard on a renovation of the Alamo's plaza, to be revealed in the coming months.