Bat Cave

A New City Hall/County Courthouse

          On 22 November 1848, the journals of the city council meetings reflect that city land is to be sold to finance the construction of a new city/county government building.

          Construction began on 6 September 1850 and between 8 July and 16 August 1852, San Antonio’s new City Hall and Bexar County’s new Courthouse was open for business. It was a two-story, four cell, jail building sited east-west, surrounded on three sides by a wall with an administration building sited north-south and being the fourth (east) wall of the jail yard. The only entrance to the jail yard was through the ground floor of the administration building of which the city had the ground floor and the county the second floor. The compound was located in the Northwest corner of Military Plaza.

        In May of 1888, a contract was let for a new City Hall (the present one) that would dominate Military Plaza when completed in 1892. The old Bat Cave was razed at some point after 1890 and prior to the completion of the new City Hall.

The “Bat Cave”

          The name “Bat Cave” is somewhat illusive, however, several sources agree that the name comes from the fact that thousands of bats inhabited the structure. Finally, there is this account, “thousands of bats made their homes between the roof and the whitewashed canvas ceiling of the courthouse. It was necessary, whenever court was convened, to drive the bats out by using two long poles and a cross piece of timber, which was bumped against the canvas ceiling”.

(Taken from EDIFICE OF ORDER: San Antonio City Halls and Jails 1731-1915.