| |
LEON
SPRINGS, TEXAS
Bexar County, South
Texas
Interstate 10
19 Miles NW of downtown San
Antonio
Population:
137 (2000) |
History on a Pinhead
The town began as a stage stop in 1846. Operated by George von Pleve, a former
German nobleman, the stage stop received a post office in 1857 (which closed in
1918).
By the mid 1880s, the community was thriving with a population
of 50, a store and two hotels. It was an officer’s training facility for WWI
and during WWII was the
site of at least one military execution (the hanging of an enlisted man from Camp
Swift for the killing of a young girl). During the Great Depression the town
declined to only 25 residents but grew again due to military establishing Camps
Stanley and Bullis. The population was back to 100 by 1946 where it has more or
less remained. The stage stop was extant in 2004 and it said to be haunted although
it is now privately owned.
Leon
Springs Today
Photographer's Note: "Leon Springs is a sad example of a lovely little
spot being wiped out by a subdivision. For awhile it was filled with shops and
cute little houses painted up along with a gas station and a barbecue place, then
[the developers came]. The Leon Springs Hotel, on the Historical Register, has
been obliterated by creeping expansion of a BBQ place and a "marker" was erected
to the man responsible. I have no idea where the National Register marker is.
When I was a kid, Leon Springs Hotel was in a state of decay in the middle of
nowhere, then it got fixed up, then it got wiped out. I wonder why the town let
them do that?" - Sarah
Reveley, January 2008
|
 |
WWI
First Officers Training Camp historical marker
Photo courtesy Sarah
Reveley, January 2008 | |
|
