Correspondent Tom Wilmer reports from the historic Omni La Mansion del Rio hotel situated front-row center along San Antonio’s fabled River Walk.
The classic La Mansion del Rio Hotel has a storied history that dates from a mere ten years after the battle of the Alamo.
The hotel’s cornerstone was laid in 1852 by four Marianist brothers from France when they commenced construction of a school.
The building continued to function as a school until the Marianist order relocated St. Mary’s University School of Law to the university’s Westside campus.
In 1966, Patrick Kennedy, a St. Mary’s law school graduate, purchased the property and turned it into La Mansion del Rio to coincide with the opening of the Hemisphere Worlds Fair in 1968– at the time, the hotel was one of only two along the entire River Walk.
Come along and join Area Managing Director and General Manager John “Rusty” Wallace at the fabled La Mansion del Rio, followed by Dee Dee Poteet, Visit San Antonio’s Regional Communications Manager’s cool insights about savoring San Antonio experiences.
Wallace says that today “la Mansion is the most original San Antonio experience you can have. It’s a cool, romantic hotel. When you come for a stay here, you know you’re in San Antonio.”
In addition to the four-story hotel structure built in the 1960s, the original footprint of the 1852 school remains as the front section of the hotel surrounding the reception area.
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