Victoria in 1873
In 1873 Victoria was the principal city of Texas’ central coastal region and on the supply line from the Lavaca Bay ports to San Antonio and Austin. Located on the Guadalupe River, Victoria was also a river port, with steamboats serving the city as late as the 1880s. However, Brosius’ view—looking south toward the river in the far-right distance and the recently arrived Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway in the left foreground—suggests that the city had cast its fortunes with the railroad.[1]
Victoria was established in 1824 on a site known as Cypress Grove. It quickly became the center of a vast ranching area and developed as a regional trade center. The population doubled to 1,986 in the decade between 1850 and 1860, but the Civil War and subsequent reconstruction slowed the growth. By the time Brosius visited in late 1872 or early 1873, the citizens were trying to regain the economic momentum of the prewar years. Perhaps that is why they were receptive to his suggestion that they subscribe to a bird’s-eye view of the city. The finished print was offered to the public at $5 per copy, and the city council agreed to purchase seventy copies at a price of $3 each for distribution. The council also appointed a committee to name all the unnamed streets in the city so that Brosius could identify them on his view.[2]
Constitution Square, or De Le?n Plaza, stands in front of the courthouse at the center of the print, marked by the crisscross paths and the windmill, which supplied water for the horse troughs as well as the small fountain to the left. Brosius was the first of the bird’s-eye-view artists to depict the windmill, which would later make such a difference in the settlement of West Texas. Three blocks south, between Juan Linn and Church streets, stood Market House, a small 40-x-22-foot structure that housed meat vendors. The structure was torn down in 1887 to make way for a new city hall. The stacks of lumber, between Common and North Third in the vicinity of the depot, are likely ties for railroad construction.