We inaugurated our celebration of summer by taking my kids to an enchantment of my childhood: the peaceful Japanese Tea Garden.
While studying San Antonio history a few years ago we sadly discovered an abandoned garden. What happened?
Recently I learned their former beauty has at last been restored!
Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company
In the 19th century, the Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company established a rock quarry.
Many of the limestone buildings seen around San Antonio were built from this excavated stone, including the Menger Hotel and the Texas State Capitol.
In 1908 the Alamo Cement company moved 3.5 miles away to today’s Quarry Market, near Olmos Park. (Today they are located off NE 1604.)
Japanese Tea Garden Built in Abandoned Quarry
Creatively the city parks commissioner envisioned a Japanese Tea Garden in the rocky space. This was 1917, a time where Americans again were fascinated by the Orient.
As the project began, the parks commissioner took the prominent citizens, along with the former owners of the Alamo Cement Company, on a tour of the construction site to help them envision what it could become. Funding was needed, which they speedily supplied.
In 1918 a beautiful Japanese Tea Garden was built into the rugged stone, creating a tranquil sunken garden of lily ponds through which one could meander by stone walkways and bridges surrounded by lush gardens.
Completing the effect was a waterfall gently cascading down the high quarry wall, on top of which a highway quietly sped along.
Jingu Family Bring Tea Garden Alive with Japanese Customs
In 1919, a Japanese-American family, the Jingus, became caretakers who lived on-site.
Opening the Bamboo Room in 1926, the Jingus served tea with light lunches by the Jingu daughters dressed in kimonos.
“This (powdered green) tea had a very bitter taste and not something he could serve to the people coming to the tearoom, so he developed a cold iced green tea with a tablespoon of sugar and filled the glass with ice and a slice of lemon. Then an ice cream was created with the powdered green tea and the local Borden’s ice cream company made this ice cream to be served.“ –Mabel Jingu, 2007
Kimi Eizo Jingu became known as a national tea expert, representing the Shizuoka Tea Association.
Decorated with bamboo covered walls, watercolors of each of the four seasons, painted by the artistic Kimi Eizo Jingu, adorned the tea room.
World War II Tensions Evict Jingus from their Peaceful Home
Horribly the peaceful life at the garden was disrupted when the Jingu family was evicted at the onset of WWII. Since Kimi Eizo Jingu had passed away in 1938, his widow had 7 children to quickly find a home for.
As a member of Travis Park Methodist Church, she found help as they helped her find a place to live near her children’s schools.
Most of their furnishings, and father’s art, were left behind at the tea garden.
“My sister, Helen had the radio on December 7,1941 when we heard the announcer say that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. Being of Japanese ancestry and living in the public in Brackenridge Park was difficult for our family. Soon after the news came on the radio and in the papers, the city took action to evict us out of the house we lived in.” –Mabel Jingu, 2007
Chinese Sunken Gardens
Thus a Chinese family was hired to replace the Jingus, and the name of the garden was changed to Chinese Sunken Gardens.
The Wu family ran a snack bar at the Pagoda into the early 1960s.
Sky Ride Memories
Becoming an idea in 1963, construction of a sky ride over the Japanese Tea Gardens began in 1964.
The starting point was at the entrance of the zoo, next door to the Tea Garden.
Rising 100 feet high, the sky ride took guests to an overhead view of the pagoda in the Tea Garden.
I’ve ridden that sky ride numerous times, principally because each round trip ticket cost 50 cents.
While visiting on school field trips, my classmates and I made great use of our allowance for this unique experience of viewing not only the Japanese Tea Garden from above, but also the San Antonio skyline afar.
Eventually attendance declined, so in 1999 the sky ride ended.
When the gondolas were removed and laid out for purchase at $1000 a piece, buyers quickly snatched up a piece of iconic San Antonio history…all sold within an hour.
Japanese Tea Garden Name Restored
In 1984 San Antonio renamed the site Japanese Tea Garden, and invited the Jingu family and members of the Japanese government to a ceremony for the restoration.
The 1980s were my last visit to the lovely gardens, then I moved away for several years.
Thus my shock when I took my kids to visit my childhood memories, found abandoned and dead.
Upon this trip, I entered a serene tranquility and beauty I recalled from my past.
The site is now on the register of National Register of Historic Places, by virtue of the creative use of an old rock quarry.
Jingu Family Memoirs of the Tea Garden
For a beautiful and informative first hand account by one of the Jingu daughters who grew up at the Japanese Tea Garden, read her website here. Also available is art work by the family to purchase.
To enjoy more pictures of this lovely area, click here to see my Flickr set.
