B&'tAR COUNTY HISTORI CAL COMHI SSION
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAH
INTERVIEW lf.ITH: ROBERT HUG}1AN
Interviewer: Doris Dupre
Date: February 17, 1 '177
Place: Robert Hugman 1 s home at 321 Kampmann Ave., San Antonio, Texas
DD: Mr. Hugman, this morning would you give us a l ittle about your
involvement v.ri th the development of the San Antonio River? To start
off with, would you tell us a little bit about yourself and your per­sonal
background?
H: I was born in San Antonio in 1902. I vras directly associated with
the development of the Central City San Antonio River from late 1928
to 1942. Now, in February, 1977, I am asked to record my experiences
regarding the development of our river as I know them to be. After rrry
schooling and t raining at the University of Texas, to b ecome an architect,
I spent three and one-half years in the city of Nevr Orleans. I returned
to San Antonio in 1 :128 and learned of all the various discussions regard­ing
flood control and I became interested and then involved. San Antonio
suffered its -vrorst flood in its history in 1921. There was about nine
feet of water on Houston Street in t he central city. The streets were
paved with w·ood block paving and it was a s i ght to see these blocks swell
up into mounds like igloos and wash aw~. After the flood, the city knew
they had to do something about the river and the flooding. The city em­ployed
a firm by the name of Hawl ey and Freese from Ft. Worth, I believe.
And they outlined a program for building the Olmos Dam about five miles
north of the central city. The second step was to take the meanderings
ROBERT HUG1-1AN 2
of the river away bet't-reen the dam and the loi-Ter part of the central city.
The San Antonio River valley is quite flat and there 1·1ere about five
meanderings that needed to be removed. vfuen I returned to San Antonio,
from Ne'tf Orleans, many discussions were taking place regarding the pro­posals
by the Flood Control Engineers. There was a picture shown in a
local newspaper of the channel going through the central city. The wo­men,
at that time, said it looked like an open sewer •••• and opposed it
ver,r definitely. This was in late 1928. The engineers, of course,
wanted a slick, walled and as straight a channel as possible; the city
administration wanted to save as much money as possible; the business­men
do1mtown 1-ranted as complete a flood control program as possible;
and the women -vranted to eliminate as much ugliness as possible. This
is where I first carne into the picture. wnen the pictures came out in
the paper, showing a rather straight, severe concrete channel, the ob­jections
were raised. I then proposed that about a foot of earth be
placed in the bottom of the channel and that the normal flow of the
river, which uas at times only a trickle of water, be confined to a
meandering stream 1dthin the big channel. Also, that the walls be
roughened and possibly a system of pipes so moisture could be provided
and the walls could be partially covered by vines to make it more attrac­tive.
The iromen who made the protest were from the Women's Club,
Garden Club, Conservation Society, and maQY others. This took place and
came out in the paper •••• October 18, 1929. The major problem in the
flood control program which concerned both the businessmen and the women
was the Big Bend Area in the Central City, 1-rhich is now known as the
Paseo del Rio. The channel cut-off, which now exists between the north
ROBERT HUGH.AN 3
and south ends of the Big Bend cut-off, was an absolute necessity for
flood control. The engineers and the businessmen wanted to do away
with the Big Bend, fill it up, and thereby do away with the river. But
the 1iomen cried, 11Do not take arr1ay our little river." The outcome was
that the city never did build the complete flood channel down to the
central city, but filled in the meanderings and cut a straightened
earth channel from Brackenridge Park do1-m to t he centr al city. About this
time, I proposed a solution for preserving the Big Bend area of the
river and to have water-level shops. I called my proposals THE SHOPS
OF ARAGON AND ROMULA. vle had a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce on
June 26, 1929, and my plans and proposals were printed completely by
the Light Publishing Company, Sunday, June 30, 1929. My proposal,
outlined in my Shops of Aragon and Romula, was to have a pedestrian
rrralkway from Travis Street to Commerce on the West side of the river
which ~ras on private property. Then to cross over and go down at
river level through the Big Bend area. The first part named Aragon,
was never completed as it was on private property, but later the Romula
part was made into a PWA Project, which you can now visualize. The
plan was successful because I not only made it possible to have water­level
shops, but to keep out the flood waters by putting a gate at the
north end of the Big Bend and another structure at the south end to
let the water flow back into the channel when the channel cut-off was
constructed. This is the plan that >vas accepted. And that >ias about
all that was done at that time. 1~ plan was accepted and the channel
cut-off was built shortly thereafter. However, the busi nessmen were
quite sl<:eptical about my water level shops, so I prepared a brochure
ROBERT HUU:lYU\N 4
and took it personally to all the prominent businessmen in San Antonio.
In fact, I got about 85 signatures from the important businessmen and
about 20 signatures from other influential people including vromen of
some of the clubs. Also, I was fortunate, I thought, to get the sig­nature
of Gutzon Borglum, whom you are all familiar with. I probably
should note here, before 1-re pass on to the 19301 s, -vrhen the actual pro­motion
work on the river began, the city fathers did not really care
about aesthetics, the shops, or anything - they cared more about saving
money. Therefore, the concrete channel that >·ms proposed by the engi­neers
north of the central city vras never built; rather an earth channel
was constructed. The depression days c~e to the south a lit tle later
than in the north, so in the early thirties, 1·1hen I, as an architect,
could not give m:y services away, I began working on public works pro­jects
as a planner. I redesigned Woodlawn Lake, Elmendorf Lake, Con­cepcion
Park and other projects under ¥tr. H. P. Drought, Regional
Director of the WPA and 11r. Ed Arneson, Distri ct Director. Before 1936
nothing was done on the beautification of the central city river.
DD: l'1r. Hugman, you've given us your dre~s and ideas of the San
)l.ntonio River, now, how about telling us some of the procedures and
frustrations that had to be faced before we could go from an open sewer
to the beautiful river that we nov1 have. \fuere did all of this finally
really start?
H: It started because the Board of Directors of the old Plaza Hotel
sent Jack \'illite to the city to see if something could be done about
the dirty river adjacent to their property. 1rJhen Nr. White was at City
Hall, he talked to J.vir. John Richter with the Parks Dept. and 1'-fr. Richter
ROBERT HUGHAN s
told Mr. White, 11l;Jhy fool with one little part of the river, why don1t
we go ahead with the entire beautification as proposed by Hugman back
in 129?11
DD: This was the first time 11r. \v.hite had heard about you, t hen?
H: That's the first time, yes.
DD: 'l'hen l'Ir. \fhite did come to see you?
H: Right.
DD: O.K.
H: So, Y~ . White came to see me and read my proposals for the Shops
of Aragon and Ramula. Being a hotel man and visualizing the importance
of such a project to tourism, he became very interested and decided
to promote the program.
DD: Of course, this lvas because it was going to help his business
with the Hotel.
H: That's right and he also said at the time, 11This is marvelous,
it's going to make me Hayoru, and it did. Anyway, he started and did
a good job as a promoter and as an interested businessman. They
realized (the promoters) they had to make the program a 1WA Project
and that the city had to sponsor it. At that time, I was working
under Mr. Ed Arneson for the 'dPA and I prepared sketches, block by
block of the project as I >'lished it t o be.
DD: This was so they could get a cost estimate?
H: Yeah.... So from t hese sketches lve were able to make cost esti­mates.
And t o determine t hat the ent ire project from the auditorium
down to Nueva Street would cost around $385,000. In order for the \VPA
to t&ce on the project, which they were int erested i n, the city as the
ROBERT HUGI1AN 6
sponsor should put up $75, 000. \'lhen Jack Y.Jhi.te and committees of the
Chamber of Commerce and others went to the City Hall, the city adminis­trators
said they could not put up the $?5,000, so other means had to
be found. First, they tried to get the businessmen to put up the money
in escrow. They raised about $30,000, went back to the city to see if
they'd provide the $30,000 and •••• that isn1t quite right ••••
DD: Well, it was $45,000 the city needed to put in, because they needed
$75, 000.
H: Well, the ci ty could not or would not put up the $45,000, so Jack
\fhite immediately had to find other means.
DD: It 1·ras Jack White that was getting the businessmen.... He was
going out and knocking on doors?
H: Yeah •••• along with men from the Chamber of Commerce. I 1-rant to
deviate here just a moment, to add a little spice to it •••• and to
shovr how it 1-1ent. There was a gentleman by the name of D. D. Book
-vrho owned a building on the river •••• an old building. The conunittee
went to see him and he was pretty gruf.f with them •••• told them, 11I 1m
not interested in what you're doing, but if you put one cubic .foot of
concrete in that river, 12 X 12 X 12, I swear I 1ll sue you. 11 So, any­way,
the committee went back to Jack \Vhite and he tried to find some­one
who knew ole man Book. Jack called me because he 1d heard that I
knew Nr. Book. He asked me to go see Hr. Book and I did. Now, Mr.
Book was retired, very wealthy and lonesome •••• after losing his wife,
he rarely went to the office. So, he said his office hours were from
3 to 3:15 •••• so I made certain I got over there about that time. He
was quite a jokster, so l'rhen I went in, he bowed low and said, 11My God,
ROBERT HUGH.AN 7
what an honor. 11 He talked awhile and he said, 11Have some wine. 11 So
we had some wine and I said, 11Colonel, you always say my money is no
good, but this time how about having a drink on me? 11 So we 1-mnt to
one Beer Place and then another. We stood at the bar and drank ale,
beer and ate hardboiled eggs and all the time I was trying to get
around to serious talk about the river. He knew what I was doing and
avoided the subject. Finally, I told him it was 5:30 and I had to go,
so how about this river thing? He said, 11Well Colonel, I'll tell you
what, I 1m going to make you the official architect for the Book Build­ingu;
he knew he would never do anything, 11as long as you assure me
that this project will not damage me in any way. u I did and went back
to my office on very unsteady legs.
DD: That was how you got his consent.
H: That's hovr li got his consent. I reported to Jack White and the
river committee - they forgot about Old Man Book, but I never did.
DD: What about Hr. i'Jhite? And the rest of the money for the spon­sors
contribution?
H: Mr. White and his group continued with their fund-raising cam-paign
for several months.
DD: They still don't have enough money to ••••
H: No. Then they decided to have a new plan •••• to lay out a bonded
district - one block on each side of the river, from Villita Street on
the south to Fourth Street on the north and t he city attorney approved
the district for bonds. As they made the surveys , to find eligi ble
voters, they found that there were only five legitimate votes in the
district. People who lived on the property.
ROBillT HUGHAN 8
DD: Now, this is the property along the river •••
H: Yes, property within the district they had created. At this
point in t:irn.e, they did not have the bond election vri.th five voters
when they knew that three of them were opposed to it. An old bache-lor
and two old maids, living over the Blackstone Auto Garage on
St. Mary1s St., were those who opposed the proposition. Now, a local
law states that if you own property of any kind, you would be eligible
to vote. So l'ir. \tJhi te got a number of people living in his hotel
to register and vote in this election because they had even so little
as a watch.
DD: That was their personal property so they could be qualified
to vote ••• uh? Just a watch?
H: Right. So, when they had the election and there were, I believe,
74 votes for and 2 votes against, I assumed one of the old ladies
was sick that day since there w·ere two negative votes instead of three.
DD: That was how finally the bond election carried and gave us
the money.
H: That gave us the money to give to the city to put up as the
sponsors contribution. So immediately after this, I was employed as
the architect for the project. And ~~. Arneson, who was an engineer,
would become the project engineer. I then began preparing the work­ing
drawings for the project. As you know, the architect has to pre­pare
the designs and landscaping features while the engineer adds the
structural part, the engineering part to make it stand up. But, un­fortunately,
at this point in time, l1r. Arneson realized he must go
ROBERT HUG.H.AN 9
to the Mayo Brothers for treatment where it was determined he had
terminal cancer. So, he didn't get to drav1 a line on the river
project. Rather, }~. W. H. Lilly took over }~. Arneson's office to
finish out his contracts and he became the engineer on the river
project. Finally, my drawings were complete and engineering work
done and they had the ground-breaking ceremony. The project started
and !~Jr. Robert Turk was construction supervisor for the project.
DD: Hr. Hugman, what Has the date of the ground-breaking?
H: 'fhe ground-breaking was on :t-·iarch 25, 1939. You vTill recall that
back in 129 my plans for water-level shops in the big bend area
made it possible for the city and flood cont rol engineers to build
the channel cut- off. The bottom of which was 11 f eet lorrer than the
't·Tater level in the big bend. So, in order for the river to cvntinue
to flow around the big bend, from the 129 period up to the 138
period that we 're now talking about, a bulkhead was placed in the
north end of the channel cut-off. The first thing that we needed was
to drain the big bend area of the river. • • • 1..re cut awry part of the
bUllchead in the channel cut-off and blocked off the water from the
bi g bend so the excavation work could start. Behind the water company,
across f rom La Villita, there was an old dam there that covered a
large water main. The water main had t o be pl aced deeper; the dam
removed; and •••• I must point out that the river area at t hat point
where the old Cos House is was the dumping ground for a number of
machine shops that were in that region. We removed old engines, ma­chine
parts, and even car bodies from the area where the river theater
seating area now is.
ROBERT HUGMAN 10
DD: The Arneson Theat er?
H: Yes. And you mention the Arneson Theater ••• just then. I would
like to explain that n~e for the t heater. Mr. Arneson died i n a
few months after t he project started, so, when Hr. H.P. Drought, the
regional director of the v~A, saw the beginning of the theat er, he
proposed that it be n~ed after lYir. Arneson. And even though Hr.
Arneson did not l ive to draw a line, the t heater is now known as the
Arneson River Theater.
DD: Oh, that -vras for his memory r ather than his river work .
H: In memory of him.
DD: Right • •• oh. O.K. So now you ••• in other words we had pollu­tion
of the San Antonio River in the 1930 1s.
H: No question about that.
DD: And before you could even start to develop the water-level
shops or do any of the beaut ification of the river, t hat had to all
be cleaned out.
H: Yes, there -vrere broken down retaining vTalls and pl aces where the
earth sloped down with no retaining vralls and pollution. Anywa:y, my
project began and after we drained the river, the bottom was full of
muck and in some cases 5 or 6 feet deep. We had to build temporary
platforms so that the bulldozers and drag lines could get i n there to
fill up deep places and to deepen shallow pl aces. Because ~he river
project 1,ras a long project, it made it ideal to put many laborers to
work. And as stated by the government, this pr oject was one of the
most ideal in the nation for WPA. A part, I think worth mentioning,
is that Mr. Turk and I soon realized that the men did not need much
ROBERT HUGHAN 11
of an excuse to lean on their shovels, but at the same time, they
were interested in the project itself. So "rhen 1-1e would talk about
11what goes there and what goes here11 , they all stopped and listened.
I think that was one reason the project went so well. Each man
knew what ~vias trying to create.
DD: Oh, •••• more of a personal involvement?
H: Yeah, yeah. Also, of course, a fev1 that didn't care about vTOrk­ing,
but :t>Ir. Turk saw to that; he'd take them out of one group and
put them on a worse job. So they soon learned to cooperate . Then,
the job went i deally for a long time. As the project went along, we
learned that Mr. Hhite had instructed the city supervisor that any
relic of aQY kind should be given to him ••• if uncovered ••• We did
find one or two little cannon balls, a doll and a small bel l - things
like that. But one day the men ~rere tearing down an old retaining
wall and found a f~ly of fresh water lobsters. And the city super­intendent
felt like they should go to Mr. ~fuite , but ~Ir. Turk and a
few of the other boys had a different idea. So, Hr. ~mite got two
lobsters and the men ate the rest.
DD: Well, I bet they uncovered some r eally inter esting things . Old
cannon balls and all - that is interesting. vlell, uhat >vas the next
step? Now that you1ve got the river bottom all cl eaned out and what
did you do after you got all the debris cleared away? Were the re­taining
walls next? -- or... there -v1ere some beautiful walkt.;rays ••••
hm'l did all that come into play?
H: Well, everything was built according to my plans up to a point.
Mr. Turk >vas very anxious to do it that way. He came back l ater and
ROBERT HUGY.L.AN 12
read my shops of Aragon and Romula and got the feeli ng I was t rying
to create . He was very particular about doing everything just the v1ay
I wi shed it to be, and of course I was on the job every day. I think
I should mention here that the La Villita Project was also under con­struction
just across the street from the \iPA Field Office.
DD: But this >vas also a \iPA job?
H: No, this was a Youth Corp Project sponsored by ¥~ury Maverick, Sr.,
then Nayor. About this time Hr. Maverick became rather zealous to
take over the river project and t ried to get me to employ a landscape
architect, who was kin to him. I did not do this because he want ed
me to pay $35 a day out of the meager fee I was getting. Then there
began to be criticism •••• my bridges Here like J apanese bridges and
too much roclcwork. I may mention here that the only suggestion I had
during the preparation of my plans from anyone was that the br idges
be made high enough so we could have the river parade. Have t he flo ats
on the river.
DD: 'Has the River Parade i dea that far back?
H: Yes, the Fiesta Association had the thought to have river parades.
DD: That far back?
H: That far back.
D:U: Oh, I didn1t realize that.
H: Yeah. And there was too much rockwork \·Tas a criticism. \'fell, of
course, in its raw st ate the rocla.rork would all shovT, you see. But
as finished earth work and planting took place and t he planning was
complete, it was sof tened greatly so I don't t hink that was a just
criticism. Nevertheless, it became a problem to me, for I knew who
ROBERT HUGHAN 13
was doing the criticising. Finally, one of t he bookkeepers for the
\iPA, who had an of fice in the Cos House just across from the La Vil­lita
project, came to me one day and said, 11Bob, the mat erials that
are supposed to go t o the river are being delivered to La Villita. 11
So I got t hese records one afternoon •••• got 'em photostatted and
took the material to General Claude V. Burkhead, who was on the River
Board of which Mr. White was chairman. General Burkhead 1vas furious
and suggested that we send ••• t he River Board ••• and l1r. ~ihite a tele­gram.
To call a meeting to face him with this pr obl em. I gave Gen­eral
Burkhead all the material. They called a meeting, which I knew
nothing of, and the next thing I knew, I was fired. I think this
was t he greatest disappointment of my life. Not because I expected
any more from ~1averick, but that the prominent citizens of San Antonio,
who knew all that I had done, didn't say a v.rord in my behalf.
DD: These supplies were being diverted from your project •••• to La
Villita?
H: Yes. And I consulted my attorney and he s aid, 11Well, Bob, poor
boys don1t fight city hall. u I accepted that . That 1vas the end of
the river project for me. I thi nk it1s fair and r easonable to mention
that aft er I was fired, }~ . }~verick appointed anot her architect, not
a landscape architect, to supervise the remainder of the work. And
also, there were a number of features which •·rere in my plans which
were not carried out. And others would have been changed except for
the fact the HPA would not allovr the changes. I should ment.ion that
under my supervision most of the work v-ms done in the big bend section.
The building of retaining walls, walks, the building of the bridges,
ROBERT HUGN.A.N 14
three of the bridges and the stainrays Here all about complete. Also,
I'd like to mention that Hrs. Ethel Harris had another 1-lPA project
for the making of tile. And the training of people to make tile. Her
group made all the lovely tiles that you find along the river. One
in particular being the old Snipers Tree at the nort h end of the
channel cut-off. Also, 1-rhen we 1..rere building the theater and I was
still working for the city, I had 1-ranted bells placed in the arches
on the back stage of the theater. I contacted the Mexican Consul
here and asked him if the Mexican Government would give the bells as
a friendship gesture. He thought it could be worked out. Well, then
after I was fired, I lost interest and ue don1t have the bells.
DD: No •••• they're not there, even today.
DD: Okay, Hr. Hugman, VJhat kind of problems did you face •••• oh,
like trying to camouflage the drainage pipes? How did you work those
into your plans, into your scheme, because they1re not that noticeable
on the river.
H: \fell, 1·m had the outflow from the air conditioning system of
the Najestic Building, and we made a fountain out of that, 1-rhich made
it look natural; and others where there was no space to build a foun­tain,
we concealed t hem as best possible. There remains one problem
and that is from the outflow of the air conditioning s,ystem of Joske 1s
under the Commerce Street bridge. There was not space enough there
to build anything attractive; and we tried to conceal it, which was
not very successful. And even now something needs to be done about
that •••• probably drop it down below the 1..rater level and turn it down­stream
so that it 1-lill assist in the flow of the water.
ROBERT HUGNAN 15
DD: Well, you must have used a lot of, vrhat, shrubbery, vines, trees
and palm trees; \vas that not only for aesthetic reasons, but practical
reasons as 1-vell?
H: It vras done mostly with masonry, and the plantings added.
DD: \·lith masonry?
H: Yeah.
DD: I know that fountain you're talking about. I never realized that
was a drainage before. But now, was it your idea to have the different
shrubs and the different trees?
H: Oh, yes .
DD: That was all a part of your plans?
H: Yes, there Has a landscaping plan in which every shrub and tree
was designated and Hher e i t was to go . V.le had one little old man, a
German fellow, 1"1r. Paulson, who was just in love wi th every shrub and
plant and whatever was there before vTe start ed was preserved and moved
out to a place in Brackenridge Park so that He could reuse it 1vhen we
got ready to.
DD: Oh, instead of just destroying them.
H: Yeah, I don1t knovr whether it was finally accomplished that -vmy
or not. He did some tree surgery, and we put some crutches under some
trees so they would not fall down, especial~ when the excavation took
place; and they're still there.
DD: Well, then, as I underst and it, we wouldn' t have had the Bi g Bend
had it not been for your i deas and drawings way back in the 1920 's.
Is that correct?
H: That 1 s true. Hy plans and the prominent tvomen kept the Big Bend
ROBERT HUffi'lAN 16
from being done al-ray 1d th.
DD: And the city 't·ras just going to wipe out the Big Bend area. Is
that correct?
H: \>fell, yes. The businessmen 1-1anted complete flood control and no
other plan but mine was offered for saving the Big Bend area.
DD: To protect themselves, of course.
H: The central city needed flood protection - the busi nessmen were
right about that, but there was more than one way to get that protec­tion.
The engineers would have just made an underground drainage
system for that part of town or the owners would have riparian rights.
If t hey wished to do it that way, each one could have owned to the
center of the river. That was a possibility, but that never took
place because of my proposal for the Shops of Aragon and Romulo, which
was accepted back in 129.
DD: Okay, and in your proposal - was that where the channel would be
dropped 11 feet?
H: No ••••
DD: •••• Or was that already there?
H: The channel cut-off allowed the flood waters t o pass straight
south and not come into the Big Bend area at all, because of the con­trol
structures that I proposed ••••
DD: •••• that you proposed in your plans. I see ••••
H: •••• within my plan to make it possible to have water level shops.
DD: So, in other words, if it hadn1t been for your proposals back in
the 19201s, we would not even have the Big Bend area. It 1-rould either
be completely level, just completely wiped out •••• no river at all, it
ROBERT HUGHAN 17
would all be underground drainage ••••
H: That's true.
DD: • • • • under ground sewers. That's literally 1vhat it 1vould be. Is
that correct?
H: That's true, yes.
DD: I, for one, am glad they listened to your proposals. I think the
river is a beautiful development.
H: Hell, you have to thank the l adies back there that objected to
the unsightliness of the channel •••• you know, the main channel through
the city; and I think 1>10men have more aesthetic taste than men do,
in general.
DD: It vras really their attention that you got and let them see how
beaut iful and Hhat an attraction the Bi g Bend coul d be to San Antonio.
So, you kind of pl~ed on their emotions, didn't you?
H: Well, I didn't mean to do that; I probably had the same feeling
and they couldn't be expected to come up with such a proposal ••••
DD: It was your imagination and your ideas ••••
H: • • • • they just knew they didn't like it, and they didn 1 t \'I" ant
that r iver taken away. So that 'tvas the vital part they played. And,
of course, the women were all the wives of all the prominent men in
San Antonio who were wanting it the other v.ray, so ••••
DD: •••• so, at supper they were s~ing, 11You 1re not going to do it
that way, Jolm. 11
H: That 1s right •••• that's right.
DD: And that's reaLly what stirred the interest then.
H: Yes.
ROBERT HUGl1.AN 18
DD: Well, then, did you go around with your plans to these ladies'
groups or how did you plead ••••
H: Yes, yes. In that respect, I helped \dth the promotion, but I
probably should mention that after I had the concept of the shops of
.Aragon and Romulo, and prepared some of the drawings, I went to see
~~s. Lane Taylor, who at that time was the President of the Conserva­tion
Society. And she said, 110h, Hr. Hugman, this will be marvelous.
They're not going to take avJay the river. 11 And we were sitting on
her front porch that afternoon, and Lane Taylor came home, and she
said, 11Lane, lim afraid your dinner will be a l ittle l ate this evening.
vie 1 re talking 'river 1 • 11 And Mrs. Taylor was the person that introduced
me to the Chamber of Commer ce meeting vrhen we had it.
DD: •••• to present your plans.
H: Yeah.
END OF lN'fERVIl*l
... "\ .
HUGt~AN , ROBERT
the river
Arneson Theater,10
Biographical,l ,4
Bond El ection,7,8
Constructi on,9-15
Financing, 5-7
Fl ood Control ,1-3,9,16,17
INDEX
r~ave rick,~1aury,Sr., 12,13
Lands caping,14,15
River development-beautification,
4,5
Shops of Aragon and Romula,3,4,
8,12,18
Hhite,Jack ,4-7,
WPA , 4, 5,1 0, 11 , 13
For years, Hugman's contribution to the river beautification-devel
opment project was ignored or forgotten. Fortunately, before
he died, the bells were placed at the Arneson Theater and he received
a great deal of appreciative attention and publicity.
See also, interview with Ruth White concerning Jack White's part
in the river project.
Read, also, Hugman•s speech to the San Antonio Historical Assn.
•: