My other favorite San Antonio historical site.......
http://www.historicmenger.com/
Great place to sit down for a cold drink and think of TR recruiting the rough riders.
The Menger Hotel was constructed in 1859 under the direction of owner William A. Menger and architect John Fries. The original two-story building (pictured) occupies a prominent location in downtown San Antonio, only 100 yards from the site of the Alamo. It is the Menger that has housed personalities such as Theodore Roosevelt (pictured), Sidney Lanier, Babe Ruth, Mae West, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Sarah Bernhardt, and Gutzon Borglum, just to name a few.
More than 130 years of refinements have created a masterpiece of traditional elegance and atmosphere at the Menger. The hotel now boasts five stories, 316 rooms, and unparalleled amenities. Guests not only get to experience the history and charm of a national landmark, but also to enjoy the comfort of a high-class hotel. Although much of the architecture, history, appointments, and artifacts found at the Menger Hotel certainly qualify as museum-quality, it remains a public hotel - as it has been since 23 years after the fall of the Alamo.
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism...The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin...would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities."
Teddy Roosevelt, Republican President (Speech, New York, 1915)
I remember my sons asking me why did it feel like their shirts were shrinking when they entered the Alamo. Easiest answer I ever gave to them, "Pride".