Ripley’s, Guinness in plaza shutting for good
SAN ANTONIO — Asia Florece was strolling to the Alamo with three friends when a sign drew them into the Guinness World Records Museum.
In town for a San Japan anime and gaming convention, the Californian and friends spent well over two hours soaking in the exhibits before they even set foot near the iconic church at the mission and battle site. They were among the last customers of one of the three amusement attractions that will close for the last time today. Ripley’s Haunted Adventure, a fixture in Alamo Plaza for two decades, and Tomb Rider 3D also will shut down permanently.
“It’s kind of sad because they’ve been there for 20 years, and now they’re closing on Labor Day weekend, which is kind of ironic,” said Florece, 25.
Davis Phillips, president and CEO of Phillips Entertainment, the family-owned company that operates the three attractions with about 100 employees, said there’s a tinge of melancholy mixed with excitement about what lies ahead. His grandfather and father, who both mentored him, taught him always to have a contingency plan.
“It’s the end of an era, but it’s not the end of Phillips Entertainment. I’ve been working for probably 13, 14 years to prepare us for life without these attractions,” he said. “A family business is almost like a family member. It helps provide the life that everybody enjoys. So it’s a big deal when it changes and when it’s going away.”
If there’s any pleasure he can draw from this change, it’s that the three attractions are not closing because they failed financially, like dozens of other businesses across the street from the famed Texas shrine. His company accepted an undisclosed offer from the Texas General Land Office and nonprofit Alamo Trust to buy out his lease, which ran
through 2028.
The Land Office owns three historic commercial structures on the plaza, including the Palace and Woolworth buildings, where Phillips has been leasing space. The three buildings, which lie partly on the footprint of the historic Alamo missionfort, will be renovated to serve as a $140 million, 100,000-squarefoot Alamo museum and visitor center, set to open in March 2026.
Phillips, whose company still runs four other downtown businesses, including two on the south end of the plaza, as well as two Extreme Escape locations on the North Side, will continue serving on the Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee, providing feedback on the massive publicprivate Alamo makeover.
“The project is headed in the best direction since it all got started” in 2014, he said. “The city of San Antonio and the travel and tourism industry need this to be a win.”
His family’s connection to Texas tourism dates to the 1960s. Phillips’ grandfather Gene Phillips was president of Aquarena Springs, then one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state. His father, William “Bill” Davis Phillips, worked there and later ran the Southwestern Historical Wax Museum in Grand Prairie.
“Those two gentlemen specifically were very instrumental in helping Texas tourism flourish,” Davis Phillips said.
Phillips, who began working in the wax museum at age 11, said both men taught him “confidence with humility” and the importance of putting the health of the business ahead of personal desires.
He credits his grandfather with being among the first Texans to support local and statewide travel industry groups to share information and advocate on issues to support the tourism economy.
His father, having been formally trained in music, was a pioneer in using different melodies in each gallery room to establish an “immersive experience,” Phillips said. He helped establish a wax museum and Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Alamo Plaza in the late 1980s before he retired in 1997. He died in 2007.
The family started its own business in 2000. It opened Ripley’s Haunted Adventure in March 2002, then the Guinness museum in 2003, and Davy Crockett’s Tall Tales Ride and Interactive Outpost in 2005. The $3 million Crockett-themed ride was “excellent” in concept, but it lagged in ticket sales because it was aimed at children under 13, Phillips said. So in 2008, the company pivoted to the Tomb Rider brand, with 3D glasses and laser lights wrapped around an Egyptian adventure motif, and it became “the best thing that we operated.”
Since 2002, the three attractions have sold more than 7 million tickets.
Now, it’s time for a new chapter.
Phillips has until Oct. 31 to vacate the Palace and Woolworth buildings. He’ll return items from Guinness and the Haunted Adventure to Florida-based Ripley Entertainment, sell back parts of Tomb Rider to the manufacturer and dispose of most of the rest.
His company, under management agreements, will continue operating the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum and Texas Rangers Museum on Houston Street and Amazing Mirror Maze in Alamo Plaza. It recently opened Viva SA.TX!, a souvenir retail store in the former La Tienda location in the plaza, and is part of a group that will soon open a new ’80s and ’90s-themed concept bar called Be Kind and Rewind in the plaza’s former Fuddruckers location.
Phillips’ two sons, ages 25 and 17, have worked for the company, and his mother, Janet Phillips, is the board chair.
“There’s a lot of success and a lot of pride in what our family has done and will continue to do,” Phillips said.
Although the north end of Alamo Plaza has been closed to traffic and is now being treated with more reverence in recognition of its history as a battlefield, burial ground and the first permanent local Spanish-Indigenous mission, Phillips believes the plaza should always remain “the heartbeat of San Antonio.”
“It is the center of our city, and it’s a place for people to come have fun. It’s a place for people to come remember. It’s a place for people to come speak their mind. And I hope that it will continue to be that in the future.”
Jaz Ramirez, a 27-year-old from Midland who joined Florece as part of the foursome recently visiting the Alamo, was satisfied, having plunked down $25.99 to see the Guinness records museum with her friends. After reading about things such as the world’s largest man and feats in mountain climbing, then playing the games and trying to register the world’s loudest scream in the attraction’s popular scream room, it was bittersweet to learn the three attractions’ days were numbered.
“I grew up coming to San Antonio and the Alamo to do things,” Ramirez said.
“Growing up, I never had the money to be able to go do all of that. And to go and do it now as an adult and know that I can’t do it again, it kind of makes me sad.”