Balcones Heights Becomes a Regional Shopping Center 13, 1948, to incorporate with 35 for and 3 against.Ī young city had a young mayor with Clyde Crews, age 32, leading meetings that sometimes took place at the Tee Pee Indian Village Restaurant or his own Green Pastures Restaurant.Ī tax-free town, Balcones Heights had a unique early ordinance that required males between the ages of 21 and 45 to spend five days a year working on public streets and alleys.Īs traffic zipped through Balcones Heights, there were enough speeding tickets handed out that the Evening News made it a front-page story in 1955. “We are making it possible for the person with moderate means to own a homesite in the hills overlooking the city,” said a developer of the first subdivision.ħ2 homesites were sold in the first week and 200 by the end of the first month.īalcones Heights residents voted, to the dismay of the city of San Antonio, on Nov. In 1919, the Old Spanish Trail, the first transcontinental highway across the southern U.S. The city is situated on the historic Fredericksburg Road which was a stagecoach route in the 19 th century and then a major military route.

When developers started selling lots in subdivisions in the area, some for as low as $250, they gave the area the name, Balcones Heights.

Fisher’s inciteful city history, who in 1756 thought the stair-stepped hills leading from San Antonio to Hill Country looked like balconies to him so he named the area, Los Balcones. Gateway West: The Much-Travelled Los Balconesīalcones Heights derives its name from Spanish explored Bernardo de Miranda y Flores, according to Lewis F. “We expect to see more redevelopment along the Fredericksburg Road corridor in the near future,” says de Leon.

Wonderland Medical Center which houses two VA Clinics and several independent medical and dental offices.

Redevelopment of Wonderland Mall of the Americas, which includes Hobby Lobby, Stein Mart, Burlington, Super Target, Ross and the Santikos Bijou Cinema.

Mayor de Leon is guiding the city’s transformation into an urban center that includes: We wanted a place that was convenient to downtown and the airport but also had larger yards and was located in a smaller community.” “We bought a house here in 1987 after moving to San Antonio from Houston in 1986. “Our goal is that Balcones Heights will again become a vibrant, urban and walkable community,” said Balcones Heights mayor Suzanne de Leon, who was first elected in 2008 and is serving her sixth consecutive term. While they heyday of Balcones Heights mall ( now called Wonderland of the Americas) may have passed by, the owners in partnership with the city, are currently rebranding it to mixed use and the mall’s amphitheater still plays host to the 27th Annual Balcones Heights Jazz Festival, a popular year-long concert series. Balcones Heights Looks for a Transformation Located on the hills perched along historic Fredericksburg Road, the little San Antonio enclave of Balcones Heights has been many things since its incorporation in 1948, but the one constant of this little city of 3,000 folks has been its fierce independence.īalcones Heights has changed tunes over the years from its beginnings with Depression era developers hawking affordable “country lots” to its checkered 1950s reputation as a no-tax town that relied on speed trap revenue to becoming a regional shopping destination in the 1960s with Interstate 10 and Interstate 410 nearly bisecting the town that is less than a square mile.

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