The sun peaks through live oak and cypress. When you reach the steps at the Commerce Street bridge, leave the river and climb to street level. Just a few paces west is the oval green-lettered sign of Schilo's delicatessen, an institution at that location since 1942. Take the three-story Fairmont, for example. Instead of the Marriott Rivercenter's 1,000 rooms, most of which are the same, the Fairmont has 37 and none is alike.
Mornings have a European quality, including the street noise that intrudes such a small building.
Rain races through gutters, drips from balcony railings and glistens on ivy-covered walls. The Fairmont, now operated by Wyndham, began life in 1906 as a railroad hotel. In 1985, the 3.2 million-pound structure was lifted onto rollers, trussed with bands of steel and moved five blocks to its present location across from HemisFair Plaza. One route from the red-brick Fairmont to the River Walk takes you through La Villita, the historic riverside settlement that is now home to artisans, small shops and a chapel. The River Walk was conceived after a small group of women fought a proposal to pave over the river in the 1920s and make it a sewer.