Just south of the Dienger Building, laying between Blanco and San Antonio Streets on the west side of Main is “The Plaza.” Not “Main Plaza” or “The Town Square” as so many today want to call it. There is only one ‘Plaza’ in Boerne, and that’s it. There is a “Veteran’s Park” across from Saint Peter’s Catholic Church, between Hickman and Kronkosky Streets, but it was never known as a plaza.
On the Plaza there was a merry-go-round that sat back about twenty-five feet from the front curb of Main. About 50 feet or so to the west of the merry-go-round, and more centered between the two side streets was the beautiful water fountain built from native honeycomb rock. There were no pecan trees lining the Plaza, only a few hackberry trees along Main and scattered around, with a bench or two under some of them.
The grass was worn down all around the merry-go-round and the hard-packed sandy soil made for an ideal place to draw out your circle for marbles. The sandy soil was easy to dig in to make a hole where you would play washers or throw marbles. Occasionally money was thrown and you would lose all that did not go into the hole.
The soil was also soft enough that you could show off your skill with your pocket knife by playing mumbly-peg. This was in the days before the pocket knife became a weapon to be feared. It was carried by most boys to use when whittling a stick or cutting a string. In later years, some of the people became afraid that someone would get hurt on the merry-go-round and sue the city, so they had it taken down. It was moved over in the flat to the colored school for them to play on. I guess no one was afraid of one of them getting hurt and suing someone.
The Plaza was a favorite spot to meet and settle differences. A fight would start at school and rather than face the wrath of the teachers, the challenge went forth to “Meet me at the merry-go-round after school and we’ll settle this there.” A large crowd would always gather to see that both parties would show up and find out firsthand who would be the winner.
Besides being used as the local battleground, the Plaza was also the place for playing games such as football, baseball, and dodge ball. There were times though that none of these were permitted. When the owner of the Kendall Inn was mayor, he made sure playing was forbidden during his guests’ afternoon naptime.
The Plaza goes back to the laying out of Boerne. It was part of the “Commons,” an area for the people of the town but the ownership was actually in the name of Kendall County since at that time Boerne was a town in name only. Several decades later the citizens of Boerne asked the Commissioner’s Court of Kendall County to take down the fences around the Plaza. This request was granted but what purpose it served I do not know. In the early 1900s when Boerne incorporated, the City acquired parts of the Commons which included the Plaza. However, the area where the courthouse presently is, and several other small lots, remained in the ownership of Kendall County.
In early times there was a cypress water tank at the west end of the Plaza where water could be run into a smaller tank for livestock to drink. People in the area could also draw water here since not everyone had a water well and there was no city water. The tanks were removed sometime in the 1920s.
Another part of the Plaza was the multitude of cut-ants and their holes. It is extremely hard to eradicate these ants as they have large underground chambers. There were three service stations directly across Main Street and they would pour their old oil into the ant holes hoping to get rid of the invaders. This went on for a number of years until someone decided to set the oil on fire in hopes that this would end the ant problem once and for all. Some kerosene or gasoline was poured into the holes and the oil was set afire. Smoke came up completely on the other side of the Cibolo Creek. No one could believe how expansive the underground ant den was. By the way, it didn’t kill the ants.