Picnic Tables and Benches in Brackenridge Park - San Antonio, TX USA
N 29° 27.743 W 098° 28.177
14R E 551428 N 3259332
In the center of Brackenridge Park, just south of the Joske Pavilion, are a group of picnic tables with associated fire pits that are on a large concrete base. These are for public use and have been since the WPA built them from 1938 - 1940.
Waymark Code: WM13WZZ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/04/2021
Views: 3
The Work Project Administration was a nationally funded effort by the US Congress in the 1930s through early 1940s to assist the US citizens work during the national economic depression brought on by the collapse of farming during the time of the Dust Bowl years. Other factors played in as well, but President Franklin D Roosevelt spearheaded the organization of the Work Project Administration (WPS. Within the WPS had various departments, and one subset was the National Youth Project (NYP). During the '30s and '40s, many WPA and NYP world projects were approved and completed in Brackenridge Park. Many related to the San Antonio Zoo, the Japanese Tea Garden, the Outdoor Theater, and the minor but still important utilitarian improvements such as low water bridges across the San Antonio River running through this park, the stone work entrances and the stone work of the low, stone boundary walls that help separate the park's outer edges from the city streets. There are others as well, but this waymark is focused on the numerous picnic tables along the San Antonio River where the water makes an oxbow curve along the edge of the Zoo and the active park areas of walking trails and various picnic settings.
The cluster of picnic tables begins at the river's edge, within sight of the Joske Pavilion, the Zoo entrance, and several roads that transverse the park. Each of these concrete tables has a tile number embedded in the end of the table. The first table is the one closest to the Joske Pavilion and is the focus of this waymark. There are at least 15 other tables that are placed in this area next to the Zoo and the river that are dotted between the tall shade trees.
On this first table, the numbered tile shows "1" on it. Unlike the rest of the tables, this first table also has a metal plaque on the support legs holding up the table top. This plaque identifies this picnic table, and by association and identical appearance, the rest of the tables along this area of the river that is used for picnicking. The plaque reads as follows:
"Work Projects
Administration
1938 - 1940"
Link to webpage showing these picnic tables were constructed as a WPA project. The fourth one listed is for the picnic tables::
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visit link)