Alamo Cenotaph set to move after bill dies
A historic monuments bill that would have blocked relocation of the 1930s Alamo Cenotaph — and possibly interfered with its repair — died this week in the Legislature, clearing the way for the city to proceed with the move as part of a major Alamo Plaza overhaul.
The debate over moving the monument about 500 feet south has been one of the most contentious issues in a public-private project to build a museum and convert Alamo Plaza into an open interpretive space, free of traffic and the six-story monolithic Cenotaph. The monument honoring the fallen Alamo defenders sits at the north end of the plaza, where it was dedicated in 1940 as part of the Texas centennial.
Design experts and scholars have long argued that the Cenotaph depicting David Crockett and other defenders in statues carved by Italian-born sculptor Pompeo Coppini is out of scale and context with the mission-era Alamo church and Long Barrack. But in the past two years, as the city, the state and the nonprofit Alamo Endowment have worked on an Alamo plan that would move the monument, a group of passionate Texans have vehemently pushed back, chanting, “Not one inch!” at public meetings.
Those Alamo enthusiasts want the monument to stay within the historic footprint of the 1836 fort, where the heaviest fighting occurred in the early morning battle. The Alamo plan would place it in front of the Menger Hotel — outside the area of the fort.
Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, is one of three Republican legislators who sponsored bills that would have made it more difficult for the city to move the monument. He said he will keep fighting the relocation.
“It’s unfortunate. We have the most sacred ground in Texas,” Biedermann said Monday. “We should keep the Cenotaph there, as a reminder of why it’s sacred.”
A bill filed by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, aimed at protecting monuments, included verbiage aimed specifically at the Cenotaph, saying, “no entity may alter, remove or relocate” the monument. The bill was passed by the Senate in a 19-12 vote, despite opposition from Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, who warned that it could threaten millions of dollars in private investment in the Alamo project.
But the bill, which also would have made it hard to remove, relocate or alter other monuments on public property, was never set for a vote on the House floor. The Texas General Land Office, the agency leading the Alamo makeover, raised concerns that the bill might prevent badly needed repairs to the massive monument, which has cracks and structural instability caused by rainwater penetration, according to engineering reports.
The Cenotaph also has at least 47 historical inaccuracies, including defenders’ names misspelled or omitted, according to the Land Office. The Alamo plan calls for adding missing names to the monument and replacing its original steel, brick and concrete interior with a stainless steel frame.
The Land Office said Monday that it is committed to telling the story of the 1836 battle.
“We look forward to moving ahead with the restoration and preservation of the Shrine of Texas Liberty,” the agency said. “It is our goal to increase programming across the entire Alamo complex, including reenactments and living history tours.”
Although the Land Office does not typically take a position on specific legislation, Land Commissioner George P. Bush said in March that the decision to move the Cenotaph “has already been deliberated over in hundreds of meetings” and supported by a citizens panel.
San Antonio City Councilman Roberto Treviño, who sits on a six-member Alamo plan management committee, had said passage of the monuments bill would be “tragic.” He believes that an open plaza is needed to create a “full opportunity to tell as complete a story as you can” of the 1700s Mission San Antonio de Valero and the 1836 siege and battle.
“Using a robust public engagement process, the city of San Antonio, the state of Texas and the Alamo Endowment worked with the Citizens Advisory Committee to engage the public over the last 4½ years to create a plan that will definitively tell the complete story of the Alamo,” Treviño said in a statement Monday.
“The state has recognized we are relocating the Cenotaph — not removing it,” he said.