Daughters of Republic of Texas bows out at French Legation
Ken Herman says the DRT again has lost custodianship of one of the state’s historic relics in need of repair and fundraising heft.
AUSTIN — After six decades of managing a significant piece of Austin and Texas history, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas is bowing out of hands-on involvement at the French Legation. The DRT pretty much had no choice in the matter.
You’ll recall I recently told you about House Bill 3810, approved this year by your Legislature and signed into law by your governor. It’s an historic measure, sponsored by Rep. John Cyrier, R-Lockhart, concerning a historic structure in East Austin.
Here’s your quickie refresher on the French Legation: It was completed in 1841 to house the French ambassador to the thenindependent Republic of Texas.
The building never was used for its intended purpose, because the Republic of Texas capital was moved from Austin to Houston in a dumb move. The state bought the French Legation from private owners in 1949, and DRT has been custodian since 1956. In recent years the building, now a museum, has fallen into what state officials say is “endangered status” due to overdue repairs.
HB 3810 moves the French Legation from the oversight of the Texas Facilities Commission to the more hands-on care of the Texas Historical Commission. DRT opposed the bill but seems to have come to accept the change. The negotiated version of the measure that won approval includes a clause allowing the Texas Historical Commission to enter into an agreement with the DRT for some role in management of the French Legation.
But at its recent convention, the group approved a resolution “indicating the Daughters were not interested in a management agreement with THC” to operate the French Legation, according to a recent letter to DRT members from Barbara Stevens of Houston, the group’s new president general.
Stevens told me the resolution reflects that the Texas Historical Commission historically takes care of managing the historic properties under its care.
“We understood at the time from that their business model doesn’t necessarily include (an outside) party,” Stevens said. “They usually run the sites on their own.”
The change, she said, was an “inevitability” once the bill was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott this month.
You might recall that Texas lawmakers in 2011, unhappy with how it was being run, ended the DRT’s 110-year custodianship of the Alamo. The Texas General Land Office now runs that sacred site, which, like the French Legation, needs some TLC and rehabilitation.
There seems to be a consensus that the change at the French Legation was necessary. The DRT has been unable to raise the money needed for repairs. The Legislative Budget Board recently approved a $1.57 million emergency expenditure for that work. Historical Commission Chairman John Nau told lawmakers this year he is confident his agency can raise private funds needed for additional work at the historic building.
So after all these years, the DRT won’t be involved in running the French Legation. But the group hopes to not be far away. Next door, in fact. DRT is fundraising and working toward a new museum and headquarters to replace the facility on East Anderson Lane it will lose in coming years to planned highway construction. DRT owns two lots on San Marcos Street next to the French Legation.
DRT is seeking necessary city permits and hopes to work with the state toward “unified parking” for the French Legation and the DRT’s envisioned facility next door. Stevens said there’s no current timeline for the new facility.
“City of Austin permitting takes a long time,” Stevens told me. So we’ve heard.
In her recent letter to DRT members, Stevens reported on a video screened at the group’s convention to offer a glimpse of the planned facility, which will feature a pink granite Republic of Texas map on the entrance hall floor, a lineage research room, meeting rooms, archives and a “Gallery of Heroes.”
“The vision is becoming clearer,” Stevens said in the letter.
Sounds ambitious. And it sounds like challenges remain, including procuring the city permits, working out a parking agreement and raising the necessary money.
Stevens agreed with me that the French Legation long has been kind of undervisible to many Austinites and visitors.
“And maybe that will change,” Stevens said. “If we have the French Legation and the Republic of Texas Museum side by side, I think there’s a great chance to really have a synergy that puts the Republic of Texas in Austin in a way that it hasn’t been before.”
This could work.