The Japanese Tea Garden Grew From an Old Quarry

The Japanese Tea Garden sits down in a pit the Alamo Cement Company once worked for limestone. George W. Brackenridge gave the city 199 acres for the surrounding park in 1899, the park opened in 1901, and the garden grew up out of that abandoned quarry.

The quarry past is the whole reason the place looks the way it does. The stone walls, the waterfall, and the koi ponds were built down into the old rock face, so a fifteen-minute walk shows you how San Antonio took a rough scar of industrial limestone and turned it into something people come to on purpose.

It's open daily, dawn to dusk, and the paths are wheelchair accessible — an easy stop whether you're walking over from the zoo next door or making it the reason for the trip. Tucked behind the trees, it's quiet enough that most first-time visitors are surprised a cement quarry is what they're standing in.