125 years ago this December, in 1894, Congressman James Slaydon organized several business owners into the Business Men's Club of San Antonio, which became the forerunner of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports. The Chamber has several events scheduled over the coming two months to commemorate its 125th anniversary.
"The chamber was started 125 years ago as a group of business people that was focused on downtown," Chamber President Richard Perez said.
In 1910, the organization changed its name to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and began focusing on development throughout the city. Their first major step lives on very much today.
"We wanted to really bring people downtown and celebrate our rich culture," Perez said. "We created the Fiesta Association,which was the beginning of the Fiesta Celebration."
In the past 125 years, the Chamber has been at the heart of many of the city's major advancements. For example, it was the Chamber which organized the land that would become Kelly and Brooks Air bases during World War I, and a decade later, the Chamber developed and purchased the land that became Randolph Air Force Base.
It was the Chamber that worked with Commissioner Joe Freeman to develop the Freeman Coliseum complex, now home of the AT&T Center. The Chamber created the South Texas Medical Foundation in 1946, which later developed the South Texs Medical Center. In 1958, the Chamber formed the first committee to investigate the feasability of creating a world's fair, or "Hemisfair," in San Anonio. In 2003, the Chamber created "Team Toyota," which helped negotiate the agreement that brough the Toyota plant to the city, transforming the city's industrial economy.
Perez said the Business Men's Club may have faced different challenges back in 1984, but their goal was the same as the Chamber's goal today, to develop good, well paying, sustainable jobs for the growing population of San Antonio.
Actually, the challenges facing the Business Men's Club were not that different. A report of the first meeting in the San Antonio Express shows one of the reasons Congressman Slaydon called the men together was to discuss the future of Ft. Sam Houston, which was uncertain as the Indian Wars had come to an end and the frontier had been settled.
PHOTO' SAN ANTONIO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE