Spanish Colonial Bathroom Building
Buildings can tell a story. The main restroom building at San Jacinto is significant because it is so much more than just a bathroom. It’s a glimpse into the earliest days of the site’s history.
After the battleground was purchased by the state in 1907, the San Jacinto Park Commission immediately set to work creating a park out of the battlefield. This Spanish colonial building was built in 1915 to serve as a restroom and changing area for visitors, which makes it the oldest building still standing at the site.
The Commission also added a large dance pavilion, a decorative pergola, residences for the superintendent and assistant superintendent, and large iron gates. A small lake was dug near where the reflection pool now stands, crisscrossed by a wooden bridge.
Cars and well-paved roads were relatively rare in the early twentieth century, and most visitors arrived via a ferry from Houston. Two 100-foot-long boat landings were installed on Buffalo Bayou to welcome them.
Over time, most of these structures have disappeared, either replaced or, as the Battleground’s needs and usage has changed, allowed to disappear. Only the bathroom building still remains.