Located on the south bank of the San Antonio River, La Villita was San Antonio's first
neighborhood.

It was originally a settlement of primitive huts for the Spanish soldiers stationed at the
Mission San Antonio Valero (the Alamo). After a flood in 1819, brick, stone and adobe houses
replaced the earlier structures. In 1836, La Villita was the site of General Santa Ana's
cannon line in the Battle of the Alamo.