Blue Star Street Industrial Historic District

Four warehouses built between 1917 and 1934 make up this industrial complex on South Alamo Street in San Antonio. The land belonged to the San Antonio Belt and Terminal Railway Company, which leased parcels to tenants who put up their own buildings beside the rail sidings. Early occupants included Pittsburgh Plate Glass, G.A. Hormel Company of Texas, Muegge-Jenull Warehouse Company, Texas Cold Storage and Blue Star Ice and Cold Storage. The buildings are plain one- and two-story structures of brick, clay tile, concrete and frame, with only modest detailing on the brick facades facing South Alamo. Loading docks for rail and trucks, steel clerestory windows, a gantry crane, cork-insulated cold storage rooms and warehouse doors survive. Active and abandoned rail spurs remain, and the site borders the San Antonio River. Little changed from the 1930s until a certified rehabilitation of one building converted it mainly to housing. The district is valued as an intact rail-served warehouse complex of the early twentieth century.