First motorized buses in San Antonio

Thanks are due to many individuals and institutions for their invaluable assistance with the information and images presented here. First and foremost among them are Lewis and Betty Birdsong who generously allowed me access to Lewis Birdsong Senior's contemporaneous scrap books and photographs. Joe Herring of Kerrville was also extremely generous. The San Antonio Conservation Society, the main library and the Witte Museum and their staff provided invaluable knowledge and access to their extensive collections.

Researching early San Antonio automobile history is not easy. The usual resources, such as city newspapers and directories, are incomplete, contradictory and unreliable. As a result most of the few historians who even bothered, simply skimmed the readily available records and concluded, incorrectly, that San Antonio was very slow to adopt the automobile. More thorough research has now revealed just the opposite. Although the first automobile adverts appeared in 1902, they then disappeared until 1909 when one for an American Underslung racing type, was run on September 1, 1909. From virtually no entries in the city directory in previous years, there was a “sudden” rush of new automobile related businesses in the 1910 edition. From just two names in 1909, the list grew to nineteen the following year. By 1911 this had grown to fifty-seven. This years also saw the first time an automobile related advert in the city directory, for Meister & Becker’s repair shop at 450 N. Flores.

First car in San Antonio - 1899

The first recorded horseless carriage in San Antonio, an electric vehicle, was delivered to the Staacke Brothers livery service on Commerce Street in 1899. This is the same year that most historians agree the first gasoline powered car arrived in Texas; a St. Louis delivered by its manufacturer in person to Edward Green of Terrell, Texas. The San Antonio newspaper report does not give the name of the manufacturer of the Staacke’s electric but described it having four bicycle type wheels, steered by a tiller and capable of seating two persons. As the Staackes were agents for Studebaker it is reasonable to suggest it was one of this company’s initial and brief foray into electric powered cars. (Studebaker soon adopted the internal combustion engine.) It is most likely - though a specific record has yet to be found - that San Antonio was visited by an even earlier electric vehicle. Montgomery Wards, then a mail order company, toured a couple of specially made electrics around Texas in 1897. As San Antonio was the second largest city in the state and hosted an enormous international trade fair every year it is likely that the vehicles were brought here but definitive proof has yet to be located.

The first gasoline powered car in San Antonio arrived in 1901. Because automobiles were so expensive at this time, often costing more than most houses, the earliest examples in any given city was usually acquired by a doctor, who could justify the cost as he could now make double the number of house calls than with horses, of which some local physicians owned three teams, or a banker. It was a member of the latter group, J.D. Anderson who was head cashier at the City National Bank at 224 W. Commerce Street. (Head Cashier is the equivalent of Chief Financial Officer today.) From his imposing residence at 728 San Pedro near Cypress Street, then the most prestigious residential part of town, now graced by a Walgreens facing a McDonalds, he drove his $1,795.00 (the equivalent of $45,000.00 in today’s money) Haynes-Apperson, built by the second US automotive company after the Duryeas, to work. Not all nearby residents were pleased. In fact a delegation requested that the council ban the beasts because they scared horses and children.

1902 saw the arrival of at least two more horseless carriages. In January a steam powered Locomobile appeared and Louis Heurmann became the make’s sales agent in the city. The vehicle was described as “gliding noiselessly under complete control.” And in the summer bicycle shop owners Lewis Birdsong and Frank Crothers acquired one of the first mass produced vehicles in the world, the single cylinder Curved Dash Oldsmobile, which sold for $650.00. It was delivered in a crate to their residence on Marshall Street by a horse drawn wagon straight from the railroad. Although neither man had ever seen a car they made their living repairing racing bicycles plus, like many young men enthralled with the spirit of the age, they had been studying automotive developments in magazines such as the American machinist and the Scientific American which ran an article on the gasoline powered three-wheeler built by Karl Benz in 1885. In no time they had it assembled and running, though exactly where they acquired gasoline is a good question. Quickly becoming familiar with its simple controls driving it backwards and forwards within the confines of their yard they took it out onto the street. The Curved Dash Oldsmobile was not a complex machine to operate. It had two forward gears and reverse. It rode on twenty-eight inch wheels with wooden spokes and pneumatic tires. Its brakes operated on both the differential and the rear wheels. Before long the young men grew restless sedately puttering at twelve miles an hour along local streets including South Alamo, one of the few paved streets at that time so they headed to the race track at the International Fairgrounds where they had so often ridden their bicycles to glory. (See chapter on bicycles for details.) Here they were able to scud along the bumpy tracks, used mainly for horse racing, at the unheard of speed of 30 MPH.

First car sold in San Antonio - 1902

On September 16, 1902 the pair sold the vehicle, to a Mr. G.E. Vaughan. Established as the city’s first automobile agency, they soon sold more “Merrie Oldsmobiles” to several more customers including Fred Cook who was elected to the position of president of San Antonio’s first automobile club in the fall of 1903. In 1904 Birdsong and a companion, Welcome Smith, toured Texas in a Curved Dash, just the kind of publicity stunt beloved by Oldsmobile. They camped where necessary and often were the first horseless carriage in many communities

San Antonio Automobile Club - 1903

The San Antonio Automobile Club was formed in October 1903. With thirteen original members in attendance at the Phoenix Club, Fred Cook was elected president. Also present were Birdsong, Crothers, H.W. Staacke and J.D. Anderson.. Their first outing, to the Medina River near modern Von Ormy, set out from the Birdsong & Crothers store at 214 East Houston, where the Majestic Theater now stands. Twelve cars took part. Five were Curved Dashes. The others were a Pope-Toledo, a Thomas, a Ford, a Locomobile Steamer a Woods Electric, a Haynes-Apperson and a French import, a Richard Brazier racer The thirty mile trip on unimproved roads proved successful. On subsequent outings the club negotiated huge boulders at Cibolo Creek to visit New Braunfels and its mayor, Harry Landa, one of the town’s first automobilists. The club also brought in election results from outlying districts to the San Antonio Express which posted them along with national results received by wire service for the first time on a large electric sign on the exterior of the building, much to the delight of the enthusiastic crowds gathered there. San Antonio was at the cutting edge of many new technologies as the new century dawned.

In 1904, as the number of cars in San Antonio grew, it became mandatory for all local vehicles, motorized and horse drawn, to be registered with the city and display identification numbers. While a minimum size for the numbers was established, a number of different methods were allowed, including having them stenciled on the front of the radiator. The ordinance also stipulated a maximum speed within the city of 6 MPH, leading to, on March 24, 1904, the first speeding ticket and court fine, issued to a Winton being driven by a factory rep on Commerce Street at an estimated 18 MPH. Also in 1904, San Antonio, following a change in the Texas constitution, issued its first bonds for road improvements, to the tune of $500,000.00. This would be followed in 1907 with more bonds of $250,000.00 for the same purpose.

In 1905 the first motorized vehicles took part in the Battle of Flowers parade. In 1906 there was an interesting accident involving the wife of Judge Vanderhoeven who dragged a pedestrian the length of Alamo Plaza before someone jumped aboard the electric vehicle and brought it to a halt. She abandoned the car right then and there. The pedestrian was compensated with a new suit of clothes. The car itself still survives as part of the Witte Museum’s extensive transportation collection.

Car costs and the introduction of the Ford Model T

Cars were still prohibitively expensive for most people. The Maxwell sold for $1,400.00 and the more modest Ford Model C cost $650.00. Even so, when it became state law in 1907 for all cars to be registered with the county of residence, some 20,000.00 were to be found in Texas. Recognizing the market for lower priced vehicles, several people in the area, such as Joseph Bader in Comfort, set up a small shops to rebuild worn out cars into drivable vehicles using a mix and match approach, including some new items but mainly refurbishing parts otherwise headed for the scrap heap due to age, obsolescence or accidents, of which there were a great many. Bader’s operation was so successful he moved to a larger location in Kerrville but the introduction of the low priced Ford Model T and the Brush soon reduced demand. He stayed in business perforing automotive repairs, however, for many years.

Kerrville gained its first new car agencies, first Buick, then Brush, around 1910. Prior to this one of the first “new” cars in Kerr County was built by a local high school student, Harry Dietert, who go on to have a prominent career as an automotive metallurgist in Detroit. His first car was a dinky one seater but, realizing he could carry a girlfriend, he built a larger two seat model. Miraculously this still exists. It is owned by Joe Herring, who was most helpful in providing pictures and information about Kerrville transportation history. The can be found at the offices of the Herring Printing Company. In New Braunfels, when Joe Sanders returned from the First World War to Dittlinger’s Flour Mill in New Braunfels, he became the company’s chief mechanic, tending to the growing truck fleet. As early as 1917, almost all of the mill’s output was being moved by truck rather than rail. He also became the Dittlinger’s chauffeur, taking them not just on local trips but also on lengthy sojourns across the west to places like the Grand Canyon. Nonetheless, he did not yet earn enough to own a car of his own so he built one in his spare time, using parts from any number of worn out vehicles. It was a two seater roadster and he drove it for several years until better pay and lower priced cars allowed him to replace with it with a bought vehicle.

San Antonio automobile agencies evolve into dealerships

Agencies differed from dealerships as we know them today in that folks ordered their cars through the agent and it would then be delivered from either the factory or from inventory kept in large cities, most often Houston in Texas. This meant local businesses could survive on very slight sales without having to keep a large selection of vehicles on their books. Agents often made more money from the sale of parts, performing repairs and selling fuel than from new car sales. By 1912, when New Braunfels gained the Gerlich Auto Company which sold Fords, the situation had changed. With increasing numbers of sales and the introduction of credit plans, it became possible for dealers to run larger operations in smaller towns

When Ford replaced its popular Model N with the T in 1908, the company opened a factory owned outlet in a building right behind the Alamo. With just two employees, they did finish work on new cars and serviced older models as well. The Ford Motor Company led the way with establishing an independent dealership network and, before long, the San Antonio outlet was sold to Clifton George. It was acquired by Gillespie in the late 1920s, in part to help with George’s debts incurred by the construction of the Medical Arts Building, now known as the Emily Morgan Hotel. Relocated ultimately to a location at Culebra on Loop 410, Gillespie was acquired by the Red McCombs Automotive Group in 2009.

Building cars in San Antonio

There were a number of attempts to build cars in San Antonio and South Texas. A number of companies - see list on linked page - were created but only a few actually produced any vehicles. George Lutz tried to get a company building steam powered vehicles off the ground in 1898 but only managed to create one prototype before the company failed. There were several attempts to make or market cars in San Antonio. The Commercial Motor Car Company, which also had a Houston address, opened and closed its doors in 1910. The Texas Motor Car Company offered the Tex in 1915 and 1916. The Blumberg Motor Manufacturing Company, which also operated in Orange, Texas, opened for business in 1915 and lasted until 1922. The most successful attempt to create a "San Antonio" vehicle, Lone Star, was started in 1919, Its story is told in the "Automobile 1917 - 1944" chapter.

First San Antonio road rules published in 1910

SAPSCO, freed of its streetcar obligations began acquiring buses that would continue to serve San Antonio until after World War Two. It bought 63 new buses in 1933 alone. The policy of operating small buses frequently continued until the surge in the city’s population and war time restrictions obliged private automobile owners to use public transportation again. In 1939 SAPSCO began buying larger 40 seat vehicles. It bought 60 in 1939 and another 40 in 1940. By this time the city has grown to a population of almost 254,000. In 1939 the company carried just over twenty-two million passengers. By 1942 this had swelled to almost thirty-six million. At the same time, SAPSCO's parent company, American Light and Traction, was broken up due to the antitrust provisions passed in Washington a few years earlier. The city took over the electricity generating division, and a private group took over public transportation, renaming the bus service as the "San Antonio Transit Company." Its headquarters were in the former Smith-Young Tower, the tallest structure in San Antonio a the time, which was renamed as the Transit Tower, which is now known as the Tower Life building, still very much a part of the San Antonio skyline.

San Antonio Car Clubs and the first area road maps

As often the wealthiest and most forward thinking citizens in the community, early motorists and their numerous clubs both campaigned for improved roads and help create maps for motorists using existing routes which were often little more than tracks and trails. Club members traveled in pairs from easily identifiable spots such as the Colorado River Bridge in Austin. While one drove the other carefully noted distances and landmarks. Club president Dr. Richard Goeth, who was obliged to own three teams of horses to accommodate his medical practice in Boerne before talking a job with the Southern Pacific, helped create a number of local maps for the automobile club..

In 1916,just in time for the First World War, the Federal Government enacted the first Federal Road Aid Act which would transform the national road network. In order to receive federal monies Texas was obliged to form a state department of transportation, something that had been resisted for years. Low cost make Chevrolet introduced a modern style H pattern stick shift transmission which in due course would allow General Motors first to challenge then overtake Ford, which stuck with its awkward pedal operated planetary gears until 1927. The automobile had come of age but the changes it would bring with it were just beginning.

Early Automobiles and motorcycles in South Texas Towns

Images from the San Antonio Light Auto Section, Sunday Sept. 17, 1916

San Antonio Road Travel Timeline

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1841

First heavy duty bridge over the river in San Antonio

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1847

Texas United Stated Mail Line was running two stagecoaches a week between Houston and San Antonio.

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1848

Bi-monthly stage coach service running between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, later extended to Brownsville.

Stage coach service from SA to Austin by Tarbox & Brown

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1849

Stage coach service from SA to Port Lavaca

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1851

Henry Skillman begins running a stage coach service between San Antonio and El Paso.

Stagecoach service from SA to Indianola.

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1854

First volunteer fire company is formed.

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1857

George S Giddings takes over the El Paso contract and extends service to San Diego, CA. It initially took seven weeks to travel the 1,476 mile journey but this was cut to fours weeks. Called the Southern Overland Mail, the service lasted until the beginning of the civil war, when the federal contract is revoked.

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1867

Heavy duty bridge over the river in San Antonio at Commerce Street replaced with a second wooden structure

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1871

First heavy duty iron bridge installed in San Antonio creating Houston Street in the process

1880

Three horse carriage manufacturers operate in San Antonio. Work to replace the wooden bridge over the river at Commerce Street with an iron bridge is begun.

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1889

Some downtown streets are paved with mesquite blocks.

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1890

First traffic signal installed, on Commerce Street, near I&GN station.

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1898

Several block of Market Street on either side of the intersection with St. Marys are crudely asphalted. Along with a similar project in Houston, these are the first paved roads in Texas.

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1899

1st horseless carriages, battery powered Studebakers, arrive at the Staacke Bros. showroom on Commerce Street.

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1901

1st gasoline powered automobile, a Haynes Apperson, acquired by a Commerce Street banker

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1902

1st city automobile sale, a single cylinder Curved Dash Oldsmobile made at a bicycle store on Houston Street

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1903

1st Automobile club formed

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1904

City ordinance requires automobiles be numbered. A city wide speed limit oif 6 MPH was set, leading in March to the first speeding ticket and court fine.

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1905

As of August 21, 1905, the city engineer of San Antonio reported that there were 71 automobiles in San Antonio, representing a value of about $37,200.

First motorized vehicles take part in Battle of Flowers parade

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1909

First Ford dealership opened.

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1910

SAPD acquires its first automobile, an air cooled Franklin, for patrol work, plus motorcycles

San Antonio issues its first set of road rules. Rule #1: Drive on the right side of the street.

First motorized fire trucks acquired.

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1912

Widening of Commerce Street begins.

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1913

Broadway is created out of Avenue C and River Avenue

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1915

Old Spanish Trail connecting St. Augustine, FL, to San Diego, CA, via San Antonio, is begun

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1917

Texas Department of Transportation, TxDOT, is created.. Texas highways given state issued numbers. Route between Houston and San Antonio becomes State Highway 3

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1917

The first bus in San Antonio is built in the shops of the San Antonio Public Service Company.

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1919

San Antonio gains first TxDot offices as headquarters of one of its six divisions. TxDot was created in 1917.

Headquarters of the "Old Spanish Trail" moved to San Antonio.

Lone Star Motor Company sets up an automobile and truck plant at 515 Roosevelt.

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1922

Lone Star Motor Company goes out of business.

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1923

First factory built bus is acquired.

First electric traffic light is installed.

SAPD creates an automobile theft squad.

The last police horse is retired.

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1925

National highway numbering system introduced. Route between Houston and San Antonio becomes Highway 90

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1927

Last use of horse drawn fire equipment.

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1928

San Antonio motorist guide still advises not to leave the city if it's raining, has recently rained or rain is in the forecast.

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1929

"Old Spanish Trail" completed, 14 years after it began, running from St. Augustine, FL, to San Diego, CA. Within Texas the route becomes HWY 90 and runs through San Antonio.

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1932

Texas Board of County and District Road Indebtedness is created to pay back local authorities for roads created by bonds and other means which were now part of the state highway system.

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1933

San Antonio becomes the first major US city to abandon its street rail car service.

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1935

SAPD patrol cars are fitted with 2 way radios.

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1936

First traffic meters are installed

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1942

The privately owned San Antonio Transit Company takes over the previously city owned bus service.

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1943

Planning begins in San Antonio for the post war free way system as the city expands rapidly.

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1949

San Antonio's first expressway, HWY 281, is completed.

First 3/4 mile section of US 87, now IH10, is completed between Woodlawn Avenue to Martin Street.

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1956

First section of IH35, from Alamo Street to Broadway is completed.

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1957

First section of Loop 410 is completed.

IH35 now reaches south to Division Avenue.

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1959

The city owned SA Transit System takes over from the SA Transit Company.

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1960

City first mall, Wonderland, now Crossroads, is opened.

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1964

IH10 now reaches De Zavala to the west and exceeds city limits to the east.

First section of Loop 1604 is opened, from Bandera to IH 10.

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1967

Loop 410, nearly 52 miles round, is completed.

A section of Loop 1604, west from HWY 90 is opened.

Breathalyzers are introduced by SAPD.

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1973

Use of radar to catch speeders introduced.

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1978

VIA Metropolitan Service takes over the city bus system, making it a county wide service.

McAllister free way, the improved HWY 281, is finally opened after a decade long political struggle to prevent its creation.

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1979

Loop 1604 is completed.

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1985

Mobile digital terminals, MDT's, installed in SAPD patrol cars.

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1990

Downtown bicycle patrols introduced.

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2006

November 17, Friday - First production vehicles come off the production line at new Toyota factory in San Antonio. Peak production, when achieved, should be one new Tundra pick up every 73 seconds, of 750 a day, 200,000 year.