San Fernando Cathedral
19 Sept 1912: San Antonio´s Main Plaza is bordered on the north by West Commerce and on the south by Dolorosa streets, and the cathedral is further isolated by two flanking streets, Trevino on the north and Galvan on the south (at this time). 1. San Antonio City Hall, northeast tower. 2. Flanking the cathedral on the left is a low brick building with an awning that advertises: ¨... & Seideman, Real Estate; Stationery; US Postal Service outlet; Henry George Cigars¨. The real estate company was connected to Peter Seideman (1845-1926), whose family was engaged in real estate in the county. The post office operated a drop off location there on West Main Plaza, and further to the left, Southern Hotel with a popular bar and lunchroom, a barber shop and Sam Lesser´s Hat Hospital. 3.San Fernando Cathedral at 115 West Main Plaza. To the right of the cathedral. 4. A two story Frost Bank, founded by Thomas Clayborne Frost Sr. (1833-1903), and operated at this time by his son, John Frost (1883-1945), graduate of Princeton.
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18 November 2025: San Fernando Cathedral itself has changed little in the 123 years since the postcard was produced, and the surrounding plaza has been rechristened Plaza de Las Islas Canarias. All other surrounding buildings have been razed and the area modernized. 1. Los Padrecitos Gift Shop sells religious items largely catering to the Catholic population of the archdiocese. 2. San Fernando Cathedral, 115 Main Plaza. 3. Frost Bank Tower, Main Plaza, at 100 W. Houston Street was built in 1975 as the 22 story company headquarters. In 2019 operations were moved to City Tower 4. at 100 West Houston Street, 21 stories (1973), the main office building for the government of the city of San Antonio, housing its city departments and employees. Frost Bank Tower is currently padlocked shut as its future is planned out. Out of view beyond these structures is the glassy, prismatic headquarters building of Frost Bank (Frost Tower), 23 floors, at 111 West Houston Street at the corner of N. Flores.
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Postmark: 19 Sept 1912; San Antonio, Tex.
Stamp: 1c Green Ben Franklin #357 To: Mr. Geo. Leland Cherry St. Middleboro Mass. Message: Sept 17 We sailed from N. Y. To Galveston Sept 7. We are having a splendid trip. We visited in Houston & San Antonio Texas. Going home by rail through New Orleans, Buffalo & Montreal. Ruth |
This postcard was mailed 19 September 1912 in San Antonio to Geo. Leland on Cherry Street in Middleboro, MA. The Leland family owned The Leland Carnation Company, a florist and agricultural business at the corner of Cherry, Thomas, and Wareham Streets on the eastern border of Middleboro town, about 15 miles southwest of Plymouth, MA.
Ruth, the author of the card, was likely Ruth Ann Lee Cushing (1856-1946), at #10 Wareham Street, neighbor to the Lelands, and divorced spouse of Nathaniel Cushing, Jr. (1869-1944). She was the daughter and oldest child of Bradford Buffington Lee and Eliza Ann Bullock of Dighton, Bristol County, MA. It was there on November 20, 1895 that she married Nathaniel Shurtleff Cushing Jr. of Middleboro and relocated with him there. They had one son, Henry Murdock Cushing (7 April 1896 - 2 April 1983)[apparently conceived out of wedlock]. In 1900 Ruth and her 4-year-old son Henry lived with her husband and father-in-law in Middleboro. The elder Cushing died in 1912, and by 1920 Ruth and Nathaniel were divorced; Nathaniel lived with his older brother Alfred in Middleboro as did Ruth and Henry separately. By 1930 Ruth was living with her son Henry and family. Henry served in WWI and returned to Middleboro where he worked as a chauffeur for a private family in nearby Lakeville, Plymouth County (1930), then as a laborer in a cranberry bog (1940). Ruth died April 10, 1946 at the age of 89 and was buried in Union Cemetery in Carver, Plymouth County, MA, to be joined by her son in 1983. |
