Growth of San Antonio

While I was working at the Institute of Texan Cultures I watched the Hilton Hotel del Rio being built. It was built by H.B. Zachary, an early developer, who then sold it to the Hilton chain. Being of a generation which drove nails and cemented bricks from the ground up, I was amazed at the new construction techniques. First they assembled an entire floor on ground level. Then they raised it to the heighth required and put it into place. This saved a lot of time and money. In order to develop the area along the river for Hemisphere the power structure of San Antonio condemned a large tract of land which was basically a slum. They also moved the Coca Cola plant. When they drilled a shaft in the old Coca Cola building they struck water. It made me wonder why the Coca Cola people hadn"t taken advantage of this location to water down their original formula.