Terrell Hills: The Suburb That Beat San Antonio in Court
Near San Antonio, Texas
In nineteen nineteen, Frederick Terrell, a San Antonio banker who had also served as the city's mayor, began platting an affluent residential suburb on the northeast edge of the city, near Fort Sam Houston. He named it Terrell Hills. Six families and three bachelors signed contracts in January of nineteen twenty to build homes within five years.
The community incorporated as its own municipality on May first, nineteen thirty-nine. But in nineteen forty-five, San Antonio tried to absorb it by annexation, and crucially, held no election in either community to authorize the move. Terrell Hills sued. The court voided the annexation entirely. That legal victory set the precedent that has kept Terrell Hills independent ever since. Today it remains a small, wealthy enclave, completely surrounded by San Antonio yet stubbornly its own city.
