History
a brief history of the tea gardens
...keeping it simple....
The Japanese tea gardens used to be a rock quarry in the 1800s. A man of Japanese decent made a tea house there, the gardens were constructed with the help of prison labour, local people donated plants to the gardens. The man who took care of the gardens died but his family took care of the gardens until anti-japanese sentiment evicted them. The city called the gardens Chinese gardens for some time... it was later re-deemed Japanese in the 80's. The city of San Antonio stopped funding the gardens and the gardens were no loner maintained until recently. After complaints from many disapointed tourist and locals it finally became restored and funded with help of the City of San Antonio and private donations.
For the official version click here.