SAN ANTONIO – Within an hour, an Alamo Plaza icon was gone.
The hat of the famous bandstand in front of the Menger Hotel was removed Friday morning and hauled to its relocation site.
Last week, crews began dismantling the city-owned bandstand — a gathering place for both locals and tourists — as the city plans to restore and redesign the plaza.
The upper top roof, or hat, and the surrounding lower canopy were removed last week. Crews will separate the wood columns and railings and transport them to the new site at the Berkley V. and Vincent M. Dawson Park near the Hays Street Bridge.
A camera showing updates on construction on Alamo Plaza will be shown online. To view the dismantling of the bandstand, click here.
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Two existing bronze dedication plaques and a time capsule will go to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
While the bandstand is just a recreation of the original, it was still a quirky site to see at the downtown destination. But since its erection in 1976, it has seen excessive water damage, the Alamo’s website states.
It was built to replicate a previous bandstand from 1890.
The current bandstand also “does not architecturally relate to the period of historical structures surrounding it,” the website states.
The relocation of the bandstand is in line with a plan to redesign and restore the Alamo Plaza, which has garnered controversy in recent years.
That plan also calls for the relocation of the Cenotaph, the restoration of the Church and Long Barracks and the creation of a visitor’s center, among other components.