Excavations at the Alamo Shrine [page 15]

The front facade of the church is traditional for the times and is quite ornamental (Fig. 4). This is called a retable facade. Its basic design and occasional function were similar to the large retables (retablo major) placed behind the main altar of a church, with niches to display statues of saints and other religious objects and symbols, planned to lead the eye to points of emphasis. This type of retable facade is of the late 17th and early 18th century Mexican Baroque style (Baird, 1962; Markmann, 1966; McAndrew, 1969).

Flanking the ornamental arched doorway, with floral designs and its geometrically paneled wooden doors, are four collateral columns and two niches for statues. The niches, which are of classical derivation, have arched tops with a scalloped shell pattern and segmented, floral-decorated side panels. Each niche has a concave interior and a projecting, semicircular podium base for supporting statues of saints. The columns, which are also classical in inspiration, are combined fluted and salomonic (twisted) shafts with corinthianesque capitals. The bases of the columns rest upon tall pedestals, each decorated with what appears to be a floral design. Directly above the doorway is a large window framed in ashlar which once lit the choir loft. Flanking the window are two more niches for statues similar to the ones below. The upper portion of the facade (as currently seen with its top curvilinear gable) and the two upper side windows (Fig. 6,c) were late additions completed by the U.S. Army in 1849 when the old damaged building was repaired to serve as a Quartermaster Depot (Fox, Bass, and Hester, 1976).

The remaining original facade (Fig. 6,c), which is located below the U.S. Army addition, and which may be all that was completed before secularization, is 8.3 varas (7 m) in height. (The total height of the present building with its later addition is 10.5 m.) However, the planned total height of the facade (Fig. 6,a) was to be 14.3 varas (12 m) from ground to its highest point (Leutenegger, 1977). In other words, it was originally planned that the center front of the church would actually rise about 1.5 meters (5 feet) higher than the present structure.

In the original plan, columns were also to flank the second level niches; and a fifth niche, probably also flanked by short columns as was the style for retable facades of its time, was to e centered above the choir window (Fig. 5). Since the upper part of the church was not completed prior to secularization, it is doubtful that the upper portion of the facade was actually finished.

In the lower two niches were placed statues of St. Francis and St. Dominic. In the two niches above, statues of St. Clare and St. Margaret of Cortona were to be placed; the top niche was to display a statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The lower two statues were installed before secularization, but those for the upper niches may never have been completed. The reconstruction drawings shown in Figs. 5 and 6,a are based upon contemporary descriptions and planned works given in the inventory records by Fray Pedro Ramirez in 1772 when control of the mission was transferred from the Franciscan College at Queretaro to the College of Zacatecas (ibid.).

Following secularization and eventual abandonment of Mission San Antonio de Valero, along with the other San Antonio missions in 1793, the buildings fell into disrepair and were stripped of usable items, such as doors, windows, and hardware. The mission lay essentially unoccupied until 1802, when a company of Spanish cavalry, the Segunda Compania Volante de San Carlos de Parras del Alamo, so named after the town in Mexico near where they were previously stationed, occupied the