Interactive Journalism: Alamo Plaza Renovation Timeline

June 2018

A $450 million re-imagination of the Alamo seeks to triple the size of its historic plaza at the heart of downtown and turn what now is a cramped, touristy experience into what one design consultant called a shaded, parklike “place of reverence and learning.” The proposal, put forth in June 2018 by the city, the General Land Office and the nonprofit Alamo Endowment, envisions closing parts of three streets to traffic, demolishing up to four buildings and moving the 1930s Cenotaph.

Courtesy, City of San Antonio

Oct. 18, 2018

After hours of fervent public comment from both sides, the City Council votes 9-2 in favor of an unprecedented makeover of Alamo Plaza, San Antonio’s most famous public space.

Feb 19, 2019

Taking the first steps toward a full makeover of Alamo Plaza, the Texas General Land Office opens an outdoor welcome center and put up signs prohibiting scooters, skateboards and bicycles.

Bob Owen / San Antonio Express-News

May 7, 2019

The Texas State Senate passes a sweeping bill related to preserving historic monuments that prevents San Antonio from relocating the Cenotaph.

Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News

May 20, 2019

A historic monuments bill that would have blocked relocation of the 1930s Alamo Cenotaph — and possibly interfered with its repair — dies in the Legislature, clearing the way for the city to proceed with the move as part of a major Alamo Plaza overhaul.

William Luther / San Antonio Express-News

Oct. 11, 2019

Human bone fragments are unearthed during an archaeological excavation on the grounds of the Alamo. The scattered fragments were found in a site exploring part of the Alamo Church and Long Barrack, according to the Alamo Mission Archaeology Advisory Committee. As part of the committee’s protocols, an on-site tribal monitor was present during excavations and oversaw the respectful covering of the remains.

Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News

Oct. 14, 2019

The Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, a native American group that maintains that many of the bodies buried at The Alamo are their ancestors, calls on city and state officials to reconsider the timeline for the $450 million public-private makeover of the sacred shrine after the discovery of human remains.

Dec. 23, 2019

A federal judge dismisses San Antonio and two state agencies as defendants in a lawsuit seeking to slow down the $450 million, four-year overhaul of Alamo Plaza in efforts to protect the area as a historic cemetery. But Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia also left open the door for Tap Pilam to amend its lawsuit to better argue its case against the Alamo Trust.

William Luther / San Antonio Express-News

Dec. 27, 2019

About 50 people with flags and signs assemble in defiance of plans to move the 1930s Cenotaph honoring nearly 200 men who died in the storied battle for Texas independence. The protesters, members and supporters of This is Texas Freedom Force, several with rifles, gathered two days after Christmas for an overnight demonstration.

Matthew Busch / San Antonio Express-News

Jan. 23, 2020

Tap Pilam files an amendment to its previously filed federal lawsuit, claiming the Alamo is a cemetery that merits legal protection.

William Luther / San Antonio Express-News

April 20, 2020

Alamo Trust and Texas General Land Office announces plans to exhume human remains at The Alamo. Tap Pilam opposed the exhumation, reigniting the controversy.

Josie Norris / San Antonio Express-News

April 26, 2020

The Texas Historical Commission approves a controversial plan to exhume four partly intact sets of skeletal remains at the Alamo, allowing badly needed preservation work to continue on the mission-era church. On a 5-0 vote, the commission’s executive committee approved the Texas General Land Office’s request for a permit that provides an option to use DNA testing on the remains.

Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News

June 17, 2020

The Texas Historical Commission recognizes the Alamo’s mission-era church as a “verified cemetery” and supports plans to improve areas along the south and east boundaries. The commission denied proposals from two descendant groups to declare areas outside the church an “unverified cemetery,” which would have temporarily halted the $400 million plaza renovation.

Jerry Lara / San Antonio Express-News

Aug. 25, 2020

The Alamo posts on Facebook a new rendering of the master plan showing what the project might look like in 2024. When the project finally gets off the ground, the Long Barrack could regain its second story, and a defensive ramp and platform could be replicated at the compound’s southwest corner, where the garrison’s largest cannon was fired during the 1836 siege and battle.

Courtesy, Alamo Master Plan Management Committee

Sept. 22, 2020

The Texas Historical Commission denied San Antonio’s request to relocate the Alamo Cenotaph. At the end of a nearly 10-hour virtual meeting Tuesday, the commission voted 12-2 against the city’s request for a permit to repair and move the monument. The stunning decision has put the entire $450 million makeover of the mission and battle site on hold. But advocates on both sides of that heated controversy are hoping any delay is a short one.

Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News

Nov. 12, 2020

Some members of the City Council said they favored dropping a lease agreement for Alamo Plaza after the state’s decision not to move the Cenotaph, resulting in a loss of fundraising support. The City Council did not take action but one council member called for a change in leadership for the project and another questioned whether the plaza makeover was necessary.

William Luther / San Antonio Express-News

Nov. 19, 2020

Bexar County Nelson Wolff along with former Mayor Phil Hardberger and Phil Bakke, a former member of the Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee, wrote to Mayor Ron Nirenberg and the City Council, urging them to keep Alamo Plaza a fully open space and to protect the historic 1921 Woolworth Building that faces the plaza. The Woolworth Building was a site of peaceful integration in 1960.

Josie Norris / San Antonio Express-News

Feb. 11, 2021

Half of the $136 million state funds provided over the past five years for restoring and operating the Alamo have been spent, according to a report by the state auditor’s office. The report also points out the project has encountered major obstacles – the Texas Historical Commission’s vote in September not to relocate the cenotaph and the discovery of human remains in the Alamo Church.

March 1, 2021

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush reach a truce. During a hearing in the Texas Senate, Bush said he and Patrick have had meetings and are now in agreement on key pieces of a $450 million restoration plan for the Alamo. Among the major compromises: Leaving the Cenotaph where it stands today. “We further agree that the story of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo must be the central focus on any master plan design,” Patrick said.

Courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand

March 23, 2021

The nonprofit Alamo Trust names Kate Rogers, a former executive at H-E-B Grocery Co., as the new Alamo executive director. She replaced Douglass W. McDonald, who resigned Oct. 1, 2020 after just over three years as Alamo CEO. Officials at the trust expect Rogers to play a key role in resuscitating a bumpy and sometimes controversial public-private project to improve Alamo Plaza, build a museum, restore two mission-era structures and interpret the site’s history.

Jerry Lara /Staff photographer

May 5, 2021

The new two-story Alamo Exhibit & Collections Building will be 24,000 square feet and cost $15 million. Work on the project is expected to begin this summer and to be completed in the summer of 2022. The building will house pieces from both the Alamo and Phil Collins collections.

Rendering by Gensler | GRG

July 26, 2021

Construction of an Alamo exhibit hall will begin in August 2021, despite concerns that the structure might be too big — and too boring. During a meeting in Austin, Dallas architect Norman Alston expressed concern that the limestone building depicted in an artist’s rendering appeared “too big to be that plain in that location,” at the northeast corner of the Alamo grounds.

Rendering by Gensler | GRG

Aug. 17, 2021

With a few speeches, patriotic marching music and simulated musket fire, the Alamo broke ground on its first major construction project in decades — an exhibition center that will carry the historic mission and battle site into a new era. The $15 million Alamo Exhibit Hall and Collections Building, set to open in fall 2022, will house items donated by rock star Phil Collins and the Alamo’s own collection.

Jerry Lara / Express-News

Aug. 27, 2021

A public discussion of the Alamo’s connection to civil rights is hosted. “Our histories are intertwined with one another. And we’ve got to find a way to unite that, to tell a full story,” Carey Latimore, a member of the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee, said during a public discussion of the Alamo’s connection to civil rights.

UTSA Special Collections

Oct. 21, 2021

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appoints Jerry Patterson to serve on the nine-member 1836 Project Advisory Committee. Patterson oversaw the 2011 transition at the Alamo as state land commissioner when the General Land Office replaced the Daughters of the Republic of Texas as the site’s custodian.

Bob Owen / Express-News

Nov. 10, 2021

An Austin firm purchases downtown’s historic Dullnig Building, an 1883 structure built by a prominent San Antonio businessman as a grocery and dry goods store. 290 Jones Investments Inc. bought the three-story red brick building at 101 Alamo Plaza last month for an undisclosed price.

Courtesy of the San Antonio Conservation Society Foundation, Raba Collection

Feb. 9, 2022

Removing a major obstacle to the long-anticipated makeover of Alamo Plaza, an operator of tourist attractions agrees to vacate two buildings on the west side of the plaza. These include Tomb Rider 3D Adventure Ride & Arcade, the Guinness World Records Museum and Ripley’s Haunted Adventure.

Contributor file photo