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 Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company
N 29° 27.641 W 098° 28.597
14R E 550750 N 3259141
A historical marker gives a brief history of the large smoke stack beside the entrance into what is now the tourist attraction of the San Antonio Japanese Sunken Gardens.
Waymark Code: WMM8EP
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/10/2014
Views: 8
The original kiln works and quarry of the Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company is located off N St Marys Street, west of the San Antonio Zoo. Parking is available at 3875 N St Marys Street at the entrance to the SA Sunken Gardens or along the curbside of the street. Closer to the San Antonio Zoo is another, larger free parking lot within a short walk to this kiln. While here, take a walk around the Sunken Gardens, ride the Zoo's miniature train, and look for the many way marks and geocaches in the immediate area. This kiln is very similar in vintage and history as the Taylor Lime Kiln #1 found in Austin, Tx. (WMKGW9 and WMKGW3). ( visit link)
Marker Number: 98
Marker Text:
Near this site in 1879, Englishman William Loyd discovered a blue argillaceous limestone believed to be a natural cement rock. Analysis by San Antonio druggist and chemist George H. Kalteyer confirmed the rock contained proper proportions of lime and clay to produce portland cement.
Loyd and Kalteyer, along with other investors, organized the Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company, which was chartered in January 1880. This, the first portland cement plant west of the Mississippi, began with on intermittent pot kiln. A second pot kiln was added in 1881, when the company name was changed to Alamo Cement Company. The tall stack Schoefer-type kiln was added in 1889. Cement from this plant was used in the construction of the State Capitol and the Driskill Hotel in Austin.
Through the vision and leadership of Portland Cement pioneers Loyd, Kalteyer,and Charles Baumberger, who succeeded to the presidency following Kalteyer's death in 1897, the company flourished. In 1908 the plant relocated to a site later known as Cementville near Alamo Heights. The original quarry became the Japanese Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park. The kiln area was designated as Baumberger Plaza in 1944.
(1991)
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Visit Instructions:
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