San Bernardo Avenue

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. San Bernardo Avenue, Laredo, Webb County. Now, every great strip has a story, and this one starts the way a lot of Texas stories do: with a road, a dream, and somebody figurin' out that travelers have money in their pockets.

San Bernardo Avenue began as a commercial road in Laredo. Simple enough. But by 1938, it had grown into something bigger, something with a name that announced its ambitions: the San Antonio Highway.

That designation replaced an earlier route that had run along Santa Maria Avenue, and just like that, the spotlight shifted. San Bernardo was the new main act. Now, the entrepreneurs of Laredo didn't wait around for 1938 to start seein' the possibilities.

Property along San Bernardo was already bein' developed even earlier, ahead of an anticipated increase in tourism. Motor courts. Filling stations.

The kind of places that said, welcome, stranger, we've been expectin' you. The city had itself a pitch, too. Laredo marketed itself as a gateway to Mexico, and San Bernardo Avenue was the most accessible route to get there.

That's a powerful thing to be, a gateway. Word travels. Visitors followed.

And where visitors go, businesses grow. Motels, restaurants, all manner of enterprises opened along the strip to serve the people passin' through. But here's where it gets interesting.

The folks building along San Bernardo weren't just throwing up plain storefronts. These modern structures featured architectural detailing representing earlier Western and Spanish themes. And that detailing sometimes differed considerably from other building designs within Laredo.

These were exaggerated designs, built to speak to out of town visitors and their concepts of the region. The buildings were tellin' a story, maybe a little embellished, shaped to match what the traveler expected to find when they got to the edge of Texas. The advertising along the highway reflected those same themes.

So the whole strip, the architecture, the signs, the motor courts with their neon and their arches, it was all one long, carefully composed first impression. And it worked. The new businesses and the emphasis on tourist attractions were vital for Laredo's early commercial growth and development, helping to expand the city's economy.

All of it built along one avenue. Today, San Bernardo is still a vibrant part of the city, and Laredo is still a popular tourist destination. The architecture along that strip evokes an era of early auto tourism, and the marker calls it an integral part of the area's history in the twentieth century.

Some roads just carry more than traffic. San Bernardo carries the whole story of a city that looked at the highway and decided to meet it head on.

What the marker says

San Bernardo Avenue, which began as a commercial road in Laredo, became known as the San Antonio Highway by 1938, replacing the earlier route along Santa Maria Avenue. Due to the anticipated increase in tourism, San Bernardo Avenue property started to be developed even earlier for travel-related businesses, including motor courts and filling stations. The city marketed itself as a gateway to Mexico, and San Bernardo Avenue soon provided the most accessible route. Other tourism-related businesses also grew in correlation with the strip's increasing importance. Many entrepreneurs opened motels, restaurants and other businesses along the strip to serve visitors. These modern structures along the path often featured architectural detailing representing earlier Western and Spanish themes, which sometimes differed considerably from other building designs within Laredo. The exaggerated designs catered to out of town visitors and their concepts of the region. Advertising along the highway also reflected these themes. The new businesses and emphasis on tourist attractions were vital for Laredo's early commercial growth and development, helping to expand the city's economy. Today, the San Bernardo commercial strip is still a vibrant part of the city as Laredo continues to be a popular tourist destination. Its architecture evokes an era of early auto tourism, an integral part of the area's history in the twentieth century. (2006)