Sunken Garden Theater
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Chinese Sunken Garden Gate
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Japanese Tea Garden entrance
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| Location | Brackenridge Park, 400 N St. Mary's St San Antonio, Texas, USA |
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| Coordinates | 29°27′40″N 98°28′36″W / 29.46111°N 98.47667°WCoordinates: 29°27′40″N 98°28′36″W / 29.46111°N 98.47667°W |
| Built | 1942 |
| Architect | Rodriguez, Dionicio |
| Architectural style | Faux bois sculpture |
| MPS | Sculpture by Dionicio Rodriguez in Texas MPS |
| NRHP reference # | 04001167 |
| Added to NRHP | October 22, 2004 |
The San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden, or Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park, San Antonio, Texas, USA opened in an abandoned limestone rock quarry in the early 20th century. It was known also as Chinese Tea Gardens, Chinese Tea Garden Gate, Chinese Sunken Garden Gate and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden (also known as the Sunken Gardens) in the U.S. state of Texas was developed on land donated to the city in 1899 by George Washington Brackenridge, president of the San Antonio Water Works Company. The ground was first broken around 1840 by German masons, who used the readily accessible limestone to supply the construction market. Many San Antonio buildings, including the Menger Hotel, were built with the stone from this quarry on the Rock Quarry Road.
In 1880 the Alamo Cement Company was incorporated and produced cement for 26 years in the kiln, the chimney of which still stands today. Supporting the workforce of the quarry was a small "village", populated primarily by Mexican-Americans who worked the site. They and their families became popular with tourists, who purchased pottery, hand woven baskets, and food.
About 1917, City Parks Commissioner Ray Lambert visualized an oriental-style garden in the pit of the quarry. His engineer, W.S. Delery, developed plans, but no work began until individual and private donors provided funds in 1918. Lambert used prison labor to shape the quarry into a complex that included walkways, stone arch bridges, an island and a Japanese pagoda.
At the entrance to the garden, Mexican-born artist Dionicio Rodriguez (1891-1955) replicated a Japanese Torii gate in his unique style of concrete construction that imitated wood. In 1919, at the city's invitation, Kimi Eizo Jingu, a local Japanese-American artist, moved to the garden. In 1926, they opened the Bamboo Room, where light lunches and tea were sold. Kimi and Miyoshi Jingu maintained the garden, lived in the park, and raised eight children. Kimi was a representative of the Shizuoka Tea Association and was considered an expert in the tea business nationally. He died in 1938, and in 1941 the family was evicted with the rise of anti-Japanese sentiment of World War II.
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