Historic US Highway ends
in San Antonio TX

Photo credits: Stephen Taylor. Map scans: Jenn Dolari; Robert Droz

When the US routes were first assigned in 1926, two of them had endpoints in San Antonio (US 181 and US 290). Then, a few years later, US 385 [I] was co-signed with US 290 to a common terminus. Below is a 1932 map scan:

US 181 came in from the south on Presa Street, and then used Alamo Street to connect with US 90, which was routed along Houston Street at the time. US 290/385 came in from the northwest on Fredericksburg Road (today designated as Loop 345), which becomes Flores Street and passes through downtown. Based on this map, I would say the terminus of these two routes was on Flores at Houston. The photo below is facing east on Commerce Street:

Taylor, 2001

Instead of going straight here, eastbound US 90 originally turned north (left) on Flores, the upcoming intersection. It's quite possible that US 290 (and later US 385) would've been signed at that left turn along with US 90; the shot below is looking north from Commerce on Flores:

Taylor, 2001

The next intersection ahead is Houston...

Taylor, June 2005

...where US 290/385 went (or began) straight ahead, but US 90 would've turned right.

It wasn't long before things changed: in 1934, US 290 was rerouted such that it no longer served San Antonio at all (you can read about its subsequent endpoints on my US 290 page). And about the same time, US 385 [I] was completely decommissioned when it was swallowed up by US 87. By 1947, the map looked like this:

Not only had US 87 been routed through the city, but so had US 281. US 90 was using Commerce Street instead of Houston. And US 81 was routed out of town via Flores and Nogalitos Street (rather than Laredo Street and Frio City Road). US 181 was the only route that still ended in San Antonio. The designation would've gone at least as far as Alamo, which served not only as US 81, but also as US 281 at various times. The shot below is looking northwest on Presa; Alamo runs across the photo at a diagonal:

Taylor, 2003

It's possible that US 181 was cut back to this intersection. But if it were me, I still would've signed 181 to the right (whether or not 81/281 were on Alamo), so that it would have a junction with US 90, which was the primary east-west route through town:

Taylor, 2003

That's looking north on Alamo at Commerce, which I believe would've been the most traveller-friendly location for the north end of US 181. As I mentioned above, US 90 originally ran along Houston, so 181 used to continue two blocks ahead from there - below is a photo from that endpoint:

Taylor, June 2005

That's northbound on Alamo at Houston. The shot below is looking the opposite direction:

Taylor, June 2005

US 181 began straight ahead; on the left is the Alamo. The route was truncated out of downtown San Antonio in 1977; you can view its current endpoint on my US 181 page.