Plaza

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. When the founders of Gonzales laid out their town, they didn't think small. They drew up a town tract of four square leagues — and inside that, they plotted out forty-nine squares for the inner city.

Now, forty-nine squares is a serious piece of planning. But here's where it gets interesting. Seven of those squares were set aside for public use.

Seven. Out of forty-nine. The folks doing the planning clearly had opinions about what a proper town needed.

This particular square — the one you're standing near right now, or rolling past on your way through — was designated for a municipal building. That was the plan. That was the intention.

But somewhere along the way, the municipal building never claimed it, and the square became something else entirely. It became a plaza. And not just any plaza.

Today it carries the name Texas Heroes Square, given in honor of all the Gonzales men who fought in the Texas Revolution. All of them. The name doesn't single out one hero or one moment — it casts a wide net over every man from this town who answered that call.

Four square leagues. Forty-nine squares. One of them meant for a building that never came.

And what rose up in its place was something no city planner could have penciled in: a living piece of memory.

What the marker says

Gonzales town tract of 4 square leagues had 49 squares in inner city -- 7 of these squares for public use. This one was for municipal building, but became plaza. Now called Texas Heroes Square, in honor of all Gonzales men who fought in the Texas Revolution.