Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway Marker - Courthouse, San Antonio, TX, USA
N 29° 25.432 W 098° 29.625
14R E 549106 N 3255054
One of three markers in San Antonio, TX placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy designating the route of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway. (waymark 2 of 3)
Waymark Code: WM9MKX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 09/04/2010
Views: 13
The Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway (JDMH) was developed in the 1910s-1920s by a private group called the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) whose efforts to promote the history of Jefferson Davis was done in a time before there were well developed roadways and before the federal government oversaw the naming, numbering and development of interstate highway systems. The UDC developed plans for the JDMH to stretch from Washington DC across the country to San Francisco. There ended up being one main route that was to be the transcontinental route and two ancillary routes that were designed to highlight important events in Davis' career. The roads in the 1920s were fragmented and many no longer exist, but originally the path of the JDMH through Texas was "SH3 from Sabine River to Houston, SH20 from Houston to Austin, SH2 from Austin to San Antonio, SH3 from San Antonio to Alpine, SH54 from Alpine to Van Horn, SH1 from Van Horn to El Paso." This translates to modern road designations as, "East to West enters Texas near Orange on I-10/US90 to Houston; on US290 to Austin; on I-35 to San Antonio; on US90 to Alpine; on TX118 to Fort Davis; on TX17 to Marfa; on US90 to El Paso, crossing border with New Mexico at Anthony, TX. A southern route split off in Houston on US59 to Victoria and then on US77 to Brownsville." This JDMH infomational plaque was placed in the northwest corner of the Bexar County Courthouse at 100 Dolorosa in downtown San Antonio in 1936 by the American Legion Central Council of Bexar County. The bronze plaque reads: Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway/ dedicated to/ The Soldiers of the Confederacy/ and/ The Daughters of the Confederacy/ by/ The American Legion Central Council of Bexar County/ May 24th A.D. 1936/
Col. W. B. Tuttle, Chairman of Council/ Herman G. Nami, Sec'y & Chairman of Memorial Comm./ D. G. McNair, Architect//. Above this rectangular bronze plaque is a round bronze disk on which a seven stared flag with three wide stripes is embellished with a surround of laurel leaves. Under the flag, near the middle of the disk, are the interwoven initials of U. D. C. Both the informational rectangular plaque and the round symbolic disk are mounted vertically in a recessed of the red stone structure built to hold this and another highway memorial plaque. The stone is the same from which the Bexar County Courthouse is built.
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