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Following its independence from Mexico and subsequent annexation by the United States, Texas concentrated completely on the expansion and organization of its territory and political system. Only after losing the Civil War and with Reconstruction underway, some Texans began to look at the state's past with nostalgia about the "good old days" of the war for independence and the republic, when Texas was young and seemed invincible. One group of these individuals was the Texas Veterans Association. It was created in 1873 and composed of Texas War of Independence veterans who longed to immortalize for future generations the memory of their deeds and those of the republic. Two main interests of these men were to mark the graves of their fallen comrades, and to demand that the legislature acquire the San Jacinto battleground in order to erect a memorial. The state agreed that honoring the state's glorious past would raise the morale of the citizens, damaged after losing the war, and responded promptly to the proposals of the veterans and similar patriotic groups. The first action was to incorporate in the Constitution of 1876 the first official statement with regard to the preservation of Texas history. Article XVI, Section 39, of this document authorizes the legislature

The state also attended to the second proposal of the Texas Veterans Association. On May 16, 1883, the legislature purchased ten acres of the San Jacinto battlefield. That same year the perseverance of the Alamo Monument Association, another association of nationalistic citizens created in 1879, succeeded in convincing the legislature to acquire and restore the main patriotic shrine of Texas, the Alamo. On April 23, 1883, the legislature purchased the Alamo chapel and turned it over to the city of San Antonio for management. This building was the first purchased west of the Mississippi for historic preservation reasons.⁽¹⁾

Not only Texas War of Independence veterans and those citizens who had lived during the Republic were interested in the past; their children were interested too. One of the most distinguished of these offspring was Adina De Zavala, granddaughter of Lorenzo de Zavala, Texas revolutionary and first vice-president of the new republic. The De Zavala family inculcated in the young Adina a strong sense of patriotism for Texas and respect for its past. So captivated was the young woman with the history of her state that she devoted her entire life to preserving it. Besides being a fervent patriot, Adina De Zavala had a strong personality that made her a natural organizer and leader of historical groups. In 1887, after some informal meetings with several women friends, she created a permanent historic association to record the history of San Antonio and its vicinity and to preserve and mark its historic places.⁽²⁾

Adina De Zavala was not the only descendant who wanted to honor the past. In 1891, another organization that carried the name of Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) was founded in Galveston with similar objectives. The Texas Veterans Association, whose members were rapidly dying, created the DRT and the Sons of the Republic of Texas to continue transmitting to succeeding generations the memory and legacy of the Texas War of Independence and the republic. The DRT, composed of women whose ancestors had either established or served the Republic of Texas, was the more active of the two organizations. Its objectives were "to perpetuate the memory and spirit of the people who achieved and maintained the independence of Texas . . . [and] to encourage historical research into the earliest records of Texas," especially those relating to the revolutionary and republic periods. Additional goals were to encourage the preservation of historic documents and artifacts, to publish historical records and narratives related to republic soldiers and patriots, to promote the celebration of patriotic days such as Texas Independence Day (March 2nd) and San Jacinto Day (April 21st), to encourage the teaching of Texas history in schools, to erect monuments, to sponsor the placement of historical markers, and to acquire and hold real estate of historic value. The DRT founded numerous chapters throughout the state, although those located in Houston and San Antonio were always pre-eminent in the organization, because their activities were fundamentally focused on the conservation of the Alamo and the San Jacinto battlefield.⁽³⁾

Adina De Zavala and her peers immediately noticed the DRT because the interests of the new organization were similar to theirs, although its scope of action extended beyond San Antonio. Finally, in 1893, De Zavala decided to join the DRT, which honored her and her grandfather by naming its San Antonio chapter De Zavala.

It is not surprising that DRT's membership was (and remains) exclusively feminine. Since 1853, when the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association salvaged Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic home located in Virginia, women assumed a dominant role in the early historic preservation movement of the United States. The reason for this was the two main roles that Victorian society had reserved for women -- housewife and teacher. The practice of historic preservation came to be an activity in which women could perform both roles, since it not only gave them an opportunity to take care of neglected buildings, but they also could take advantage of those structures to teach patriotism and national history to children. In addition, historic preservation was a noble cause to which middle and upper class women, financially secure and with plenty of time, could devote their energies.

The first preservation activities of the DRT aimed to continue the patriotic labor which the veterans had already begun. For example, between 1894 and 1912 some graves and important spots were marked on the San Jacinto battlefield. The Daughters also succeeded in lobbying the legislature to purchase additional acreage there in 1900, 1909, and again in the 1930s. Finally, during the Texas Centennial in 1936, the DRT participated in the erection of a magnificent monument to commemorate the battle of San Jacinto. Nevertheless, the preservation endeavor that conferred on the DRT statewide fame was salvage of the Alamo convent building.

Although in 1883 the state had bought the Alamo chapel, a wholesale grocery firm, Hugo and Schmeltzer, owned the remainder of the compound, a long two-story building variously referred to as the convent, monastery, long barrack, or fortress. In 1892 Adina De Zavala had extracted a verbal promise from Hugo and Schmeltzer to give her organization first chance to purchase the property. De Zavala aspired to preserve and restore the convent and to unite it with the chapel. The purchase stalled until 1903, when Clara Driscoll, a young, educated San Antonian, joined the DRT and continued De Zavala's attempt to purchase the convent. In March 1903, Driscoll, an ardent patriot, gave a personal check for $500 to Hugo and Schmeltzer as an option on the property, which the owners agreed to sell for $75,000 if a down payment of $14,000 was made before February 10, 1904. To obtain funds, the entire DRT launched a public campaign to "save" the Alamo, but collected only $6,000. When the down payment became due, Driscoll not only made up the balance from her personal fortune, but she also signed notes for the remaining $50,000. Her determination touched the hearts of Texans, who began demanding that the state acquire the Alamo and compensate the efforts of Driscoll and the DRT. The plea was heard, and on January 26, 1905, the legislature purchased the Alamo convent and turned over its management and that of the Alamo chapel to the DRT, on condition that the organization maintain the monument at no cost to the state. Since then the DRT has been the proud custodian of the Alamo.⁽⁴⁾

In following years, the DRT with infrequent allocations of public funds, carried out some preservation work on the Alamo. For instance they placed a new roof on the chapel in 1922. The buildings and grounds were furnished with monuments and markers to honor its defenders and explain their account of the famous battle. During the 1936 centennial, the Alamo received a generous appropriation of $250,000 that was used to restore the grounds, to acquire additional land, and to build a museum.⁽⁵⁾

Evidence that the DRT conceived of the Alamo as a battlesite rather than as a historical building was revealed during the debate regarding preservation of the convent walls. Immediately after the DRT gained control of the property, the De Zavala Chapter divided into two factions. Clara Driscoll believed that the building she fought so hard to save was not the original structure. Hence, she longed to have it removed and replaced with a park which would feature a monument to the Alamo heroes and leave an open vista to highlight the Alamo chapel. On the other hand, De Zavala considered the convent to have even more historical value than the chapel; she maintained that the main part of the battle was fought there. Her proposal was to restore it for a museum of history and to unite it with the church. In 1908, the dispute finally went to court, which ruled in favor of Driscoll's group, commonly called Driscollites. An outraged De Zavala barricaded herself for three days in the convent to protest against its forthcoming demolition. To make the matter even more confusing, Governor Oscar Colquitt intervened in 1911 on behalf of De Zavala. He reversed the authorization of demolition and ordered the restoration of the convent. The Driscollites, however, convinced the lieutenant governor to remove the upper story walls of the convent while Governor Colquitt was out of the state. Defeated and disappointed with the DRT, De Zavala and her followers abandoned the organization to create in 1912 their own preservation group, the Texas Historical and Landmarks Association (THLA). Ironically Driscoll, who had fought so passionately to demolish original Spanish era structures, became the leader of the San Antonio DRT chapter, renaming it the Alamo Mission Chapter, to emphasize De Zavala's defeat, and became a Texas legend as the "savior of the Alamo."⁽⁶⁾

Besides obtaining custodianship of the Alamo, the DRT implemented further preservation work throughout Texas. In 1903, it opened a museum to display artifacts and documents from pioneering, revolutionary, and republic times. Originally located in the state capitol, the museum moved in 1917 to the old General Land Office building and remained there until 1989, when it moved to its present location at 510 East Anderson Lane in Austin. In 1945 the legislature placed the French Legation, the French diplomatic mission to the Republic of Texas, under the custody of the DRT. The organization restored it without financial support from the state. In 1955, it opened to the public as a museum. Additionally, the Daughters implemented their own historic-site marker program. Furthermore, the Daughters engaged in many non-preservation activities, the most significant of which were to encourage display of the Texas flag and the naming of schools after Texas heroes, to spread knowledge of Texas history through articles in papers and magazines, and to assist in patriotic commemorations and anniversary celebrations, such as the 1936 centennial. Since 1955 the only preservation contribution of the DRT has been the management of the historic properties under its control.⁽⁷⁾

As years passed the original objectives of the DRT not only became dated but also controversial, especially its glorification of Anglo historic heritage in a multi-ethnic state. Although present-day preservationists recognize, present, and celebrate the contribution of all ethnic groups in Texas history, the DRT still interprets the Alamo as a battlesite where Anglo-Saxon heroes defended their country against the Mexican enemy. Despite the opposition of state preservation agencies and the Hispanic population of San Antonio to this biased interpretation of the Alamo, it is most unlikely that the DRT will return management to the state. The Alamo is Texas' most important tourist attraction, and the revenue it produces is what presently maintains the DRT as a powerful and influential organization. All are obliged to acknowledge the important role that the DRT played in Texas historic preservation, but today its influence contributes more to retard than to advance the development of this activity.

After her separation from the DRT, Adina de Zavala continued to be an influential preservationist. A woman of extraordinary energy, she immediately put behind her the court defeat with regard to the Alamo and continued working on behalf of preservation by creating a new organization, the Texas Historical and Landmarks Association. The objectives of the THLA were almost identical to those of the DRT: to preserve historic buildings, relics, and documents; to keep alive the memory of the pioneers and early builders of Texas; and, to inculcate patriotism by teaching Texas history, by promoting the celebration of Texas anniversaries, and through the display of the Texas flag. Despite these similarities, the historic interests of De Zavala's association extended beyond the revolutionary and republic periods of Texas, although it copied DRT organization through local chapters. Notwithstanding, the THLA was always an autocracy in which Adina De Zavala was the unchallenged leader.⁽⁸⁾

The THLA's first project was to launch a public appeal for funds to restore the San Antonio missions, but the attempt soon fell stagnant. By 1915 its attention centered on another ancient San Antonio structure, the only Spanish aristocratic residence that survived in the city, mistakenly believed to be the Spanish governor's palace. In the early twentieth century, the building was occupied by several businesses which transformed its original appearance almost completely, except for a coat of arms above the main door that captivated De Zavala. As soon as she realized the historical significance of the structure, the "palace" became an obsession for her. De Zavala opened a campaign for funds to restore it as a museum, but her efforts stalled again. During the following years she continued demanding the salvage of the "palace" from the pages of a San Antonio magazine she came to edit. Such insistence stirred public interest in the building and enlisted the support of other local historical organizations. Her efforts were finally rewarded when in 1928 the city purchased the "palace" and began its restoration, which was completed in 1931.⁽⁹⁾

During her long career, Adina De Zavala was appointed to several state preservation boards. In 1923 she became a member of the Texas Historical Board, the first state agency instituted exclusively to promote historic preservation. She was also one of the original members of the Committee of One Hundred, out of which came the first plans to celebrate the Centennial of Texas Independence, in 1936, and subsequently served on the Advisory Board of the Texas Centennial Committee. In San Antonio, she was very active in community and social activities, especially those related to preservation and patriotic purposes. For example, during the 1920s De Zavala provided monthly Sunday afternoon history tours in San Antonio.⁽¹⁰⁾

During its existence the THLA did not venture beyond marking some historic sites. Between 1913 and 1938, it placed a total of thirty-eight plaques, almost all of them dedicated to Anglo heroes of Texas, except one for her grandfather Lorenzo De Zavala and another that commemorated the erection of the San Fernando cathedral in San Antonio. The legacy of the THLA as a preservation organization was, therefore, modest. Being too dependent on De Zavala, it remained too small to develop a statewide preservation association and as its leader aged, became increasingly unable to achieve ambitious goals. Hence, when Adina De Zavala died in 1955, at age ninety-three, her organization died with her.⁽¹¹⁾

The DRT and THLA were organizations that happened to be involved in historic preservation as a way to keep alive the memories of the patriots and ideals they revered. In other words, they were attracted not by the intrinsic characteristics of the historic buildings but by the people who made them historic. In the twenties, however, some preservationists became interested in historic structures because they were architecturally impressive or meritorious. Again, the activity centered on San Antonio. This is not surprising because the city is a unique community in Texas thanks to its mixture of different cultural traditions and heritages. When urban development began to threaten the original atmosphere, a group of concerned San Antonians organized to defend it.

After a September 1921 catastrophic flood devastated the downtown district, the city council proposed to build an overflow channel that passed through the site of the old neoclassical Market House on Market Street. Stirred by the prospect of its demolition, and concerned about the continuous disappearance of the city's historical, artistic, and natural landmarks, two local artists, Emily Edwards and Rena Maverick Green, created the San Antonio Conservation Society (SACS) in 1924.

The essence of the preservation philosophy of SACS is found in the second article of its constitution, written in 1925, which declared that the purpose of the society was "to preserve and to encourage the preservation of historic buildings, objects, and places relating to the history of Texas."⁽¹²⁾ At an unspecified later date, the following paragraph was added at the end of this article to amplify its purposes:

. . . its natural beauty and all that is admirably distinctive to our state; and, by such physical and cultural preservation to keep the history of Texas legible and intact to educate the public, especially the youth of today and tomorrow, with knowledge of our inherited regional values.⁽¹³⁾

As this article implies, the denomination "conservation," rather than "preservation," in the society's name was not due to chance. Its main interest has never been the preservation of isolated historic landmarks, but the conservation of the distinct historical, natural, aesthetic, and cultural characteristics of San Antonio. In other words, the city as a whole was conceived of as an environment worthy of conservation and, by extension, the heritage of all the cultures representative of San Antonio -- Anglo American, Spanish, and Mexican. These purposes were evident from the very first actions of the association, since its first objective was not to save a battlefield or an old home, but the preservation of a commercial building, the old Market House, which was not even one hundred years old.⁽¹⁴⁾

The group was unsuccessful in meeting its first objective, as the old Market House was demolished in 1925. Undaunted, during the 1920s and the early 1930s, SACS carried out other preservation activities. In 1925 it cooperated with the Alamo Chapter of the DRT to seek financial support for the purchase of all private property adjoining the Alamo. In 1926 the society backed the creation of San Antonio's first public museum, the Witte. Finally, between 1928 and 1931, it contributed actively to the restoration of the Spanish Governor's Palace. Nonetheless, the most important preservation effort of the society during those years was its leadership in the restoration of San José Mission.⁽¹⁵⁾

Outraged over the ruined state of the missions (for example, the tower of the San José Mission Church had collapsed in 1928) and stimulated by the restoration work being undertaken at the California missions, the society displaced De Zavala's group in carrying out preservation efforts at the missions. Its ultimate goal became establishment of a state park. The original doors of the San José mission, purchased in 1926, became the Conservation Society's first property. San José's granary and adjacent parcels of land were acquired from 1929 through 1931. SACS restored the granary between 1932 and 1933 with the help of state-paid workers. In 1932, a new highway, planned just outside the mission complex, became the catalyst that sparked the restoration of the church and the entire mission compound. Restoration funds came through two New Deal work relief programs, the Civic Works Administration and its successor the Works Public Administration. These programs paid the labor costs for rebuilding San José, while SACS furnished supplies and materials. An additional $20,000 appropriated from the 1936 centennial funds completed the entire project. The San José church was finally re-dedicated in 1937. Once the restoration plan was finished, the three proprietors of the San José Mission grounds, SACS, the Catholic Church, and Bexar County, continued working to establish a historical park. An agreement was eventually reached in 1940. Mission San José, with the consent of its three owners, would become a state-operated park, and the federal government would designate the mission a National Historic Site. Finally, in 1950, SACS deeded its properties at Mission San José to the State of Texas.⁽¹⁶⁾

The society worked further during the 1930s to preserve the Spanish heritage of the city. In 1937 SACS purchased 1.5 acres bordering the Mission Espada aqueduct, which is the only Spanish aqueduct still extant and usable in the United States. It also collaborated on another federally funded project, restoration of the Spanish neighborhood of La Villita. On this occasion, it was the National Youth Administration, another New Deal work relief program, which carried out the restoration. The project, started in 1939 and completed in 1941, was certainly revolutionary and representative of the objectives of the society. It was the first time that an entire district was to be preserved in Texas in order to keep its original picturesque Spanish colonial and early Texas atmosphere without jeopardizing the historical accuracy of the restoration.⁽¹⁷⁾

During the 1940s, after most of San Antonio's remaining Spanish heritage had been saved, the society shifted its interests to the preservation of the architectural heritage built before the railway's arrival in San Antonio in 1877. Among the most outstanding activities of this period were the purchases of the Jeremiah Dashiell and the Otto Bombach houses (the last popularly known as "Conservation Corner"), the campaign to save the historic Menger Hotel from demolition, and the relocation of two historic homes, the John Twohig and José Francisco Ruiz houses, to the Witte Museum grounds. Not all efforts were successful, however. In 1947 the Society suffered a major shock when it was unable to stop the destruction of the adobe homes of the Blum Street neighborhood. The major reason these historic houses were not saved was the insufficiency of the historical documentation that SACS had accumulated to support its argument against demolition. The society realized then that pure action and inspiration would be useless in achieving good preservation results without documentation. During the late forties, by developing a historic information and photographic database, as well as an inventory of historic buildings, the society started on a path toward becoming a professional preservation organization.⁽¹⁸⁾

Besides documentation, SACS needed an effective strategy to direct preservation objectives during the forthcoming years, since rapid urban development was threatening a great number of historic structures in San Antonio. Thus, in 1951 the society adopted a master plan called "Texas Under Six Flags," the purpose of which was to select historic landmarks in San Antonio to represent all six nations that once controlled Texas. The six monuments designated were the Spanish Governor's Palace for Spain; the Guilbeau House for France; the José Antonio Navarro House for Mexico; the Alamo for Texas; the Vance House for the Confederacy; and the U.S. Arsenal complex on South Flores street for the United States.

Only two of these landmarks, the Alamo and the Spanish Governor's Palace, were not threatened by destruction in 1951. The Guilbeau and Vance houses were eventually demolished in 1952, and the historic structures that substituted them in the "Six Flags" plan were also demolished.⁽¹⁹⁾ The Navarro house had better fortune, for the society purchased it in 1960, restored it, and in 1964 opened it to the public as a museum. In 1975 SACS deeded the property to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the state manager of natural and historical parks, to be maintained as a state historic site. Saving the U.S. Arsenal complex was not complicated either. When the federal government was officially informed of the historic value of the property, the military complex was saved from demolition in 1953, and eventually restored in 1982. Since the outcome of the "Six Flags" plan was only partially successful, and SACS realized that the preservation of the selected buildings was going to take longer than initially expected, the idea was eventually abandoned during the sixties.⁽²⁰⁾

Besides the "Six Flags" strategy, SACS worked actively during the fifties and sixties to preserve other historic buildings all over San Antonio. It received donations of significant houses such as the Victorian 1874 Edward Steves home on King William Street, which was restored and in 1954 opened as a museum. Nevertheless, the most important preservation action of these two decades was SACS's initiative to incorporate historic buildings on the grounds of the HemisFair World's Fair, held in 1968 in San Antonio. Restoration of the old buildings located in the fairgrounds area, and the relocation of others, gave the exhibition a distinct charm and picturesqueness that delighted visitors.⁽²¹⁾

The society continued saving historic structures between the seventies, eighties and nineties. Some of them are significant San Antonio landmarks, such as the Ursuline convent and school complex and the downtown Aztec Theater, which the society purchased in 1988. None of these preservation ventures, however, can be compared to the spectacular salvaging of the three-story Fairmount Hotel. Between 1980 and 1984, SACS saved the hotel from demolition, and in 1985 it was moved from its original location at the corner of Market and Bowie streets to a new site near La Villita. As such, it became the heaviest building ever moved on pneumatic wheels.⁽²²⁾

Since 1968, SACS has also promoted creation of some of the first historic districts in Texas. This thrust represented a step forward in the evolution of preservation philosophy, because landmarks were no longer considered isolated monuments, but rather as part of a larger landscape where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Historic district philosophy coincided with the main purposes of SACS; hence it is not surprising that in 1968 the society intervened directly in the establishment of San Antonio's first historic district, the Victorian King William Historic District, and supported creation of no fewer than fifteen others in the city.⁽²³⁾

The most significant of the latest preservation efforts of the society was its cooperation in the establishment of a national park for the San Antonio missions. By the 1950s, preservationists were alarmed by the neglected condition of the missions and feared that the state would never fund creation of a park to unite and protect them. They therefore turned to the federal government for help and asked it to declare the missions a national rather than a state park. Beginning in 1967, three bills were unsuccessfully introduced in the U.S. Congress to create the park. In 1978, however, a fourth bill passed after the San Antonio Conservation Society staged a dramatic last-minute lobbying push to achieve congressional approval. In 1983, the National Park Service, the State of Texas, the City of San Antonio, the Archdiocese of San Antonio, and the San Antonio Conservation Society adopted an agreement that created the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Unique in the nation, it is the only park to include a complex of four missions, and a Spanish dam and aqueduct still in use.⁽²⁴⁾

Besides conserving significant historic sites in San Antonio, SACS has undertaken numerous initiatives in support of preservation consciousness. Since 1974 it has sponsored numerous preservation seminars. In 1974 it persuaded the San Antonio government to create a Historic Preservation Officer as a permanent city position. In 1993 it succeeded in including historic preservation requirements in the city's master plan. Furthermore, SACS organized social activities and public events to publicize the society, to raise funds for its preservation projects, and to keep the original popular atmosphere of San Antonio. The most famous of these events is "A Night in Old San Antonio," a spring festival organized since 1947 during Fiesta Week. Today, no fewer than 4,000 volunteers participate in each one of the four nights of the festival, which produces an annual profit of approximately $700,000, thus making "A Night in Old San Antonio" the single most profitable historic preservation fund raising event in the nation.⁽²⁵⁾

The society is one of the few private preservation societies in the nation, the by-laws, conservation philosophy, organizational structure, and overwhelmingly feminine membership of which have remained practically unchanged since its founding. The society continues to rely heavily on the work of volunteers, although during the last decades it has employed a staff of preservation specialists to work full time and has adopted modern preservation standards. Today SACS is a recognized and respected organization throughout the United States. Not only has it heightened public awareness for the preservation of San Antonio's historic landmarks, but it has also contributed dramatically to saving the distinctive cultural and natural environment of the city. Consequently, it has been primarily responsible for the success of the tourist industry of San Antonio, which annually produces $3 billion in economic activity.⁽²⁶⁾

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the Texas Historical and Landmarks Association, and the San Antonio Conservation Society were the three most important pioneer preservation organizations of Texas. Although the latter was the most successful in achieving its objectives, all three groups made essential contributions during their early years to fostering among citizens and state officials an attitude in favor of historic preservation, transforming the activity into a public duty. The majority of society began to be concerned about the condition of its historic sites, and demanded that government to take care of them.

1. Lewis F. Fisher, Saving San Antonio. The Precarious Preservation of a Heritage (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1996), 42, x.

2. L. Robert Ables, "Adina De Zavala," in Keepers of the Past, ed. Clifford L. Lord (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1965), 204.

3. Quote from Constitution and By-Laws of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (Houston: Gray's Printing Office, 1892): article VI, section 1; Ibid., article II.

4. Ables, "Adina De Zavala," 205, 207, 208; Fisher, Saving San Antonio, 55-56.

5. Fisher, Saving San Antonio, 55-56, 103-108.

6. Ibid., 57-60. For a detailed account on the Alamo convent walls episode see Robert L. Ables, "The Second Battle for the Alamo," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 70 (January 1976): 372-413.

7. Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Fifty Years of Achievement. History of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Together with the Charter, By-laws, Constitution and List (Dallas: Upshaw, 1942), 100; Vernon's Annotated Revised Civil Statutes of the State of Texas (St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1925- ), art. 678b.

8. San Antonio Express, 14 March 1915, clipping on file at the Texas Historical and Landmarks Association Vertical File, The Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas (this repository cited hereafter CAH); Fisher, Saving San Antonio, 80. An example of De Zavala's power is that in one THLA meeting she elected personally the new officers by designating them with her pointed finger. (Ables, "Adina de Zavala," 213.)

9. Fisher, Saving San Antonio, 47, 78, 120, 125-27; Ables, "Adina De Zavala," 213.

10. Fisher, Saving San Antonio, 120.

11. Ibid., 97; Texas Pioneers, August-September 1936, Texas Historical and Landmarks Association Vertical File, CAH. The Texas Historical and Landmarks Association only organized group chapters in the following counties near San Antonio: Refugio, Comal, San Patricio and Goliad. There was also a chapter in Crockett County in West Texas. (The New Handbook of Texas [Austin: The State Historical Association, 1996], s.v. "Texas Historical and Landmarks Association.")

12. Constitution and By-Laws of the San Antonio Conservation Society (San Antonio, n.d.), article II.

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