Route history

This road has an extensive history and has continuously been one of the most important and busiest roads in the state. Parts of this route were on the El Camino Real that ran from Mexico via San Antonio to Nacogdoches, Texas and on to Natchitoches, Louisiana. Later, most of this road was part of the Meridian Highway, a network of north-south roads stretching from Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico to Canada delineated around 1910.

Around 1915, the US Post Office appropriated money to improve the road between San Antonio and Austin in order to speed mail delivery. The resulting 16-foot wide, macadam "post road" was considered the finest road in the state for several years. You can still find segments of this route named "Post Road" in New Braunfels and San Marcos.

When the state highway system was first developed in 1917, this road was designated SH 2. With the implementation of the US Highway System in 1927, it was numbered US 81. Eventually, this corridor was replaced with I-35.

In San Antonio, the early routes to New Braunfels took several paths through the city. Some maps show it going up Austin St. (or alternatively Broadway, then known as River Rd.) to Grayson St, then east from there to New Braunfels Ave. where it turned north. In the mid '20s, it seems the designated state route was east on Houston St. then north on New Braunfels Ave.

From there, the route went north through Fort Sam Houston, turned right onto today's Elanor St., and then veered onto what's now called Old Austin Rd. (and now you know why it's named that!) It then went back through Fort Sam Houston near the old BAMC and onto today's Harry Wurzbach Road. At Rittiman, it continued onto today's Corinne Dr. to Austin Highway. 

Sometime around 1930, the route from downtown San Antonio appears to have changed to travel up Broadway to Cleveland Court in Alamo Heights, then east on Garraty Road to Harry Wurzbach, where it then rejoined the previous routing northward; this may have been done as a temporary improvement while the route through Alamo Heights was being built (see next paragraph.)

In the early '30s, the state paid local engineer Edwin P. Arneson to develop a plan to improve the state highway system in San Antonio. One of those improvements called for connecting Austin Highway at Salado Creek to Broadway in Alamo Heights. That road opened in 1934 and US 81 and SH 2 were then routed along it and onto Broadway into downtown San Antonio. The segment between New Braunfels Ave. and Broadway was reportedly the first divided highway in the state. Interestingly, the original plan for the route through Alamo Heights called for it to leave Broadway on Cleveland Court and follow Wiltshire Ave. to Eldon, then run straight northeast to the crossing at Salado Creek..

From Salado Creek, the route followed Austin Highway northeast to the former community of Fratt, which was located in area around where Cowboy's Dancehall is located today. Fratt was considered a major milestone along the route, and the underpass at the railroad there was completed in the mid '30s as one of Arneson's recommended projects.

From Fratt, the route then continued northeast along today's Sherri Ann Rd. and onto Randolph Blvd. In the mid '30s, the section of Randolph Blvd. paralleling Sherri Ann Rd. from the railroad at Fratt to Weidner Rd. was built to provide a straighter and wider route there as per Arneson's recommendations. From Weidner, the route continued northeast along Randolph Blvd. and onto today's I-35 at Judson.

Continuing northeast, it left today's I-35 route briefly just north of Pat Booker Rd., following what's now Old Austin Rd., returning back to today's I-35 at Olympia Parkway. This section of Old Austin Rd. was also bypassed in the mid '30s.

At Main Plaza in New Braunfels, the route turned right onto Seguin Ave., curved north onto Faust St., then crossed the historic Faust St. bridge before hanging a left onto Rusk and a right onto Church Hill Dr. It then continued onto the Post Road north along today's I-35 to FM 1102 into Hunter, then on to San Marcos via Hunter Rd. (FM 2439.) The entire route through New Braunfels would be bypassed by the mid '30s with the construction of today's Business Route 35 and its then-spectacular (and still impressive today) bridge over the Guadalupe.