Alamo Stadium Tile Murals – San Antonio TX

Description

Alamo Stadium was built by the WPA in 1940. In 1941 four tile murals, entitled 100 Years of Sports in San Antonio, Texas, 1840-1940, were installed above the main entrance to the stadium; this project was under the auspices of the WPA Arts and Crafts program. The stadium recently underwent an extensive restoration/renovation program. The murals were removed and then reinstalled in their original location.

The following description is from the NRHP nomination form:
“To enhance the stadium, Ethel Wilson Harris, supervisor of the WPA Arts and Crafts Division in San Antonio, undertook her program’s largest project to date. The work was comprised of six inch square tiles three-quarters of an inch thick made from local clays. Each mural panel contained 192 tiles. Full scale drawings were completed by the program’s art supervisor, Henry Wedemeyer, with assistance from Leonora Feiler. The designs, which reflected the Mexican muralist style, were approved by the Board of Education. Sixty workers took part in the project to transfer the designs to colored tiles and fire them in Ethel Harris’ kilns. The murals were installed by Barney Villa in March 1941 and the project was completed in time for the city’s annual Fiesta Week celebration. These murals are the largest surviving public artworks produced by WPA in San Antonio.”

Ethel Harris’ workers had also produced tiles for two WPA plaques along the River Walk (see the entry for those tiles under San Antonio, Texas projects). She had adapted her maguey copyright mark for use on WPA tiles; this mark can be seen on two of the murals.