HistoricSiteMarkers
Colonial AmericaEarly Republic

Site of de la Garza House, Gardens and Mint

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Erected on this site in 1734 for prominent Bexar citizens Geronimo and Javiera Cantu de la Garza, the de la Garza family home was designed by Geronimo's brother-in-law Pedro Flores Valdez. The complex occupied an entire city block and was crafted with limestone and plaster walls three feet thick. Extensive gardens included cottonwood, pecan, fig and peach trees. The Spanish government granted the property to Javiera de la Garza in 1736 after her husband's death. Two generations later, Jose Antonio de la Garza used the home's vault to safeguard the valuables of local merchants. In 1818 the Spanish crown granted him permission to mint coins which became known as jolas, a Spanish slang term for small currency of local issue used in the northeastern provinces of New Spain. The jolas replaced scarce Spanish silver in the value of a half real, making the de la Garza home what was probably the first mint in Texas. During the Siege of Bexar in 1835, Ben Milam's troops engaged in a two-day battle to commandeer the fortress-like compound as their headquarters. Milam died in the struggle to take the city. After the siege possession of the home returned to the family, in whose control it remained for the rest of the century. Six months of demolition were required to bring down the de la Garza home in 1912. At that time a large sum of money was found hidden in the house and a sixteen-pound cannonball was discovered embedded in the walls, inscribing another page in the de la Garza chapter of San Antonio history. (1999)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built in 1734 for prominent Bexar citizens Geronimo and Javiera Cantu de la Garza, this block-long Spanish colonial compound had limestone walls three feet thick and lush gardens. Generations later, José Antonio de la Garza used its vault to safeguard merchants' valuables and, granted royal permission in 1818, minted the small coins called 'jolas'—making the home likely the first mint in Texas. During the 1835 Siege of Bexar, Ben Milam's troops battled two days to seize the fortress-like compound as their headquarters, and Milam died taking the city.

Why it matters

The site knits together Spanish colonial San Antonio, the birth of Texas coinage, and the revolution that would sever Texas from Mexico.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

To stand on this block in San Antonio is to stand at the deep foundations of Texas history. When the de la Garza home rose here in 1734, this was the far northern frontier of New Spain — a Spanish colonial outpost of missions, presidios, and a small civilian settlement clinging to the San Antonio River. Building a home a full city block wide, with limestone-and-plaster walls three feet thick, was a statement of permanence in a place where permanence was hard-won.

The eighteenth century here was defined by that Spanish colonial order, and the de la Garza compound — with its cottonwood, pecan, fig, and peach trees — reflected the settled, prosperous life a leading Bexar family could build. When the Spanish crown granted the property to Javiera de la Garza in 1736 after her husband's death, it confirmed the family among the town's founding elite.

By the early 1800s the wider world was in motion. New Spain was straining toward independence, and coinage across the northeastern provinces grew scarce. Then came the 1830s and revolution — the moment Texas would break from Mexico — and this quiet fortress-like home found itself in the middle of a battle.

People & events

The marker holds three generations and two very different kinds of drama. It begins with Geronimo and Javiera Cantu de la Garza, the prominent couple for whom the home was built, its design entrusted to Geronimo's brother-in-law, Pedro Flores Valdez. This was a family affair from the first stone.

Two generations later, José Antonio de la Garza turned the house into something extraordinary. Its thick-walled vault was trusted enough that local merchants stored their valuables inside it. And in 1818 the Spanish crown granted him permission to mint coins — the small pieces known as jolas, slang for the local low-value currency that circulated in New Spain's northeastern provinces. Valued at a half real, the jolas stood in for scarce Spanish silver, and with them this family home became what was probably the first mint in Texas.

Then, in December 1835, the Siege of Bexar swept over the block. Ben Milam's troops fought a two-day battle to take the fortress-like compound as a headquarters, and Milam was killed in the struggle to seize the city. The family regained the home afterward and held it for the rest of the century. When it was finally demolished in 1912 — a process that took six months — workers found a large sum of money hidden inside and a sixteen-pound cannonball embedded in the walls, a last artifact of that battle sealed in stone.

Its place in the American story

Few American sites braid together so many threads of the nation's origins on a single city block. Here the Spanish colonial world, the birth of money in Texas, and the revolution that would ultimately bring Texas into the United States all meet. The jolas mark a fundamental step in any society's development — the local creation of currency to keep commerce alive when official coin runs short — and they place Texas's monetary history right in a family's front room.

The Siege of Bexar and the death of Ben Milam belong to the larger American story of expansion and the contested borderlands between the United States and Mexico. The Texas Revolution reshaped the map of the continent, and this compound was one of the strongpoints fought over in its early days.

What makes the site resonate is that all of this happened at a home. Not a fort, not a capitol — a family dwelling that safeguarded neighbors' valuables, minted the community's coins, and then absorbed the shock of revolution. It's a reminder that the grand national narrative is built out of ordinary places where people simply lived.

If you visit

The de la Garza home is gone — demolished in 1912 — so this is a site marker, an invitation to imagine rather than to tour a building. Stand on the block and picture a structure that filled the whole of it, walls three feet thick, shaded by pecan and fig and peach trees. The sheer scale is the first thing to conjure.

You're in the heart of historic San Antonio, one of the most layered old cities in the country, so make this a stop on a walking route rather than a destination in itself. Read the marker, then let it reframe the streets around you: this was Spanish Bexar, a working town with its own mint and its own merchants trusting their gold to a neighbor's vault.

Carry two images away with you. First, the small jola coins — humble half-real pieces that may have been the first money struck in Texas. Second, that sixteen-pound cannonball found buried in the walls a century after the Siege of Bexar. Both are the kind of concrete detail that makes a vanished place feel suddenly real.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · José Antonio de la Garza
  • · Ben Milam

Related events

  • · Siege of Bexar

Themes & tags

Industry & InventionMilitary & WartimeLandmark

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