San Antonio’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of San Antonio. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗San Antonio was founded by Edmund F. Dunne, an Irish American who had previously served as chief justice of the Arizona Territory. In June 1881, Dunne was a legal counsel involved in the Disston Land Purchase, and as his commission, received 100,000 choice acres (400 km2) of land out of the 4,000,000-acre (16,000 km2) purchase. The following year on February 15, 1882, while surveying the Disston Land Purchase with his cousin, Captain Hugh Dunne, he came upon a previously unsurveyed lake with crystal-clear water. Seeing in a prayer book that it was the feast day of St. Jovita, he named the lake, Lake Jovita, after the early Christian martyr, and named the community, "San Antonio de Padua", after Saint Anthony of Padua.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart San Antonio’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how San Antonio’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewSan Antonio Depot, 1890: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from San Antonio
See all 1 →San Antonio, decade by decade
1970s
1990s
CommonsSan Antonio FL school012011
CommonsSan Antonio FL school plaque012011
CommonsSan Antonio FL park sign012011
CommonsSan Antonio FL Old Brown House022011
CommonsSan Antonio FL Old Brown House012011
CommonsSan Antonio FL Arnado House032011
CommonsSan Antonio FL Arnado House022011
CommonsSan Antonio FL Arnado House012011
CommonsOrange Belt Locomotive2010
CommonsOrange Belt Locomotive2010Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as San Antonio Depot (1890) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (12). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.