Elmendorf, Texas, Bexar County. (original) (raw)
29�15'41"N 98�19'50"W (29.261357, -98.330547)
FM 327 at the Southern Pacific Railroad
17 Miles SE of downtown San Antonio
ZIP code 78112
Area codes 210, 726
Population: 2,150 Est. (2019)
1,488 (2010) 664 (2000) 568 (1990)
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History in a Pecan Shell
The town dates from 1885 and was named to honor Henry Elmendorf, a former mayor of San Antonio. Henry went from politics to entrepreneur and is also credited with opening the area�s first brick factory. But the credit for discovering the properties of the clay belongs to W. F. Saenger.
A post office was granted in 1886, and by 1890 the town had a population of 50. By 1914 it had nine general stores (which may be a record for a small town at that time), a cotton gin, hotel, and nearly 300 people.
The local economy revolved around Star Clay Products, which manufactured bricks for kilns and fire-proofing.
Comfortable with its 300 residents, the town retained that figure until the 1950s. It declined to 200 but then expanded to 568 residents for the 1990 census. In the late 1930s, the town became forever-connected with a grisly axe-murder in which the woman victim was fed to �pet� alligators.
Elmendorf First Baptist Church
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, March 2008
"This stone house is well known in Elmendorf. Built in the 1920s from sandstone quarried in a nearby field, the house also contains a myriad of other objects, including discarded brick from the town's brick plant, pieces of petrified wood, shards of broken pottery and melted pieces of plastic sewer pipe from the factory in nearby Saspamco." - Terry Jeanson, March, 2008
This piece of an old, stone railroad marker was also incorporated into the house.
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, March 2008
See Texas Railroads
Cistern in front of the stone house in Elmendorf.
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, March 2008
Cistern date of construction
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, March 2008
Old store in downtown Elmendorf
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, March 2008
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