San Antonio Casino Club Building
San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The exclusive Casino Club was organized in 1854 by San Antonio Germans. In 1881 the San Antonio Club was established for literary purpose. The institutions merged in 1925 to form San Antonio Casino Club. This building, completed in 1927 with its distinctive tiered dome, became a downtown landmark. It boasted club rooms, dining rooms, dormitories, and a ballroom. After oilman Thoms Gilcrease bought the structure in 1942, it became known as the Gilcrease Building.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
San Antonio's German community founded the exclusive Casino Club in 1854, a social and cultural anchor for the city's large Deutsch-speaking population, while the literary San Antonio Club followed in 1881. Their 1925 merger produced the San Antonio Casino Club, and by 1927 this domed downtown showpiece housed ballrooms, dining halls, and dormitories. When oilman Thomas Gilcrease bought it in 1942, it took on his name and a second life as the Gilcrease Building.
Why it matters
It embodies the outsized cultural imprint of German immigrants on nineteenth-century Texas and the club life through which a booming San Antonio built its civic identity.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Louis Tussaud’s Waxworksnearby
- Buckhorn Saloon and Museumnearby
- Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditoriumnearby
- Alamo Vistor Center and Museum (coming 2027)0.1 mi away
- Briscoe Western Art Museum0.1 mi away · 210 West Market Street
- Ralston Family Collections Center0.2 mi away
Attractions
- River boat boarding0.1 mi away
- River boat boarding0.2 mi away
- Sea Life Aquarium0.2 mi away · 849 East Commerce Street, San Antonio, TX
- La Villita0.2 mi away
- River boat boarding0.3 mi away
- Yanaguana Garden0.4 mi away
Food & drink
- Saltgrass Steak Housenearby
- Paesanos Riverwalknearby · 111 Crockett Way, San Antonio, TX
- Rainforest Cafenearby · 110 East Crockett Street, San Antonio, TX
- Brenner's Steakhousenearby
- Dick's Last Resort San Antonionearby
- On The Bend Oyster Bar & Loungenearby · 123 Losoya Street, San Antonio, TX
Places to stay
- Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalknearby · 123 Losoya Street, San Antonio, TX
- Wyndham Riverside Suitesnearby · 218 College Street, TX
- Hilton Garden Inn San Antonio Downtown Riverwalknearby · 408 East Houston Street, San Antonio, TX
- Omni La Mansión del Rio0.1 mi away · 112 College Street, San Antonio
- Mokara Hotel and Spa0.1 mi away · 212 West Crockett Street, San Antonio, TX
- Home2 Suites by Hilton San Antonio Downtown - Riverwalk, TX0.1 mi away · 603 Navarro Street, San Antonio, TX
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
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Related people
- · Thomas Gilcrease
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Casino Club
San Antonio, TX
Organized in 1853 by San Antonio's cultured German immigrants, the Casino Association built an 1858 clubhouse with a theatre, a 700-seat hall, and banquet and club rooms. During the Civil War its stage hosted military balls, benefit concerts, and minstrel shows for the Confederate cause, while women gathered there to roll bandages. Over the decades its audiences included Robert E. Lee before the war and, later, Ulysses S. Grant and Buffalo Bill.
Groos National Bank
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Frederick Groos, a German engineer, reached Texas in 1848 and won a government freighting contract during the building of Fort Duncan, sending long trains of ox carts across country plagued by raids. With his brothers he built the mercantile firm F. Groos and Co., where frontier banking meant money hidden in cotton bales and cart axles for safety on the road. In 1879 the family erected San Antonio's first purpose-built bank and took a national charter in 1912.
Staacke Brothers Building
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Built in 1894 for German immigrant August Frederick Staacke's thriving carriage business, this building was designed by the prominent Texas architect James Riely Gordon. Its granite Corinthian columns and two-story arcade blend classical and Renaissance Revival elements, an emblem of San Antonio's confident commercial growth in the Gilded Age. The Staacke name marked one of the era's successful immigrant-founded enterprises.
San Antonio Section, National Council of Jewish Women
San Antonio, TX
On May 13, 1907, fifteen charter members organized the San Antonio Section of the National Council of Jewish Women in the Menger Hotel, electing Anna Hertzberg president. The council quickly launched social services—a night school teaching English to adult immigrants, literacy and public-health projects, a well-baby clinic in the 1930s, wartime day care, and the Lighthouse for the Blind. It continued adapting its programs to the city's needs for generations.