SAN MARCOS, Texas - Field surveyors are identifying historically significant properties in San Marcos in order to possibly designate more historic districts or landmarks in the future.

  • Crews surveying historically significant properties in San Marcos
  • Developments have stripped the city of historic resources
  • San Marcos is accepting submissions for consideration 

It's through the "My Historic SMTX" survey, where architectural historians are walking the streets, documenting buildings that may have been overlooked in previous reports.

Linda Coker has lived in San Marcos nearly three decades and is now serving on the Hays County Historical Commission. She's seen development take over, wiping the city of its historic resources.

"We have buildings that are aging that haven't been counted. It was time, it's been over 20 years," Coker said. "The recent past hasn't been as kind to preserving history as it should've been. We had people in power that felt development was more important than the history. The past is important here."

The last surveys were completed in 1992, 1996 and 1997. The city is hoping the updated "snapshot" of the community will help them plan for the future.

"If we see that there's a collection of high priority properties or that have architecturally significant areas, then we'll want to potentially look at that as a historic district," Alison Brake with the City of San Marcos Planning Department said. "Part of knowing what historic resources we have helps tell the story of San Marcos and keeps the charm."​

Architectural historian Elizabeth Porterfield with Hicks & Company said its surprising how many historic resources she's seen from conducting this survey.

"There's a very intact downtown and a lot of these wonderful neighborhoods. We're kind of speculating on what might have been here at one time. It's hard to tell with changes that happen. But if you stand in front of a building and you look at it and start picking it apart piece by piece, you can often get a lot of clues as to what has happened with that building and how it's evolved over the ages," Porterfield said.

The city hopes to have final recommendations from this survey completed by May. If you know of any historic resources that the city should include in the survey, you're asked to send it in here.