Excavations at the Alamo Shrine [page 16]

deserted mission complex. Apparently this was when the name "Alamo" was firmly attached to the old buildings. During the occupation by the cavalry, the mission church (sacristy) was once again used for religious services. This time it served as parish church for the soldiers and their families, with their own pastor, until 1810 when the place was once again abandoned (Habig, 1977). Later it would serve other uses, but would never again be formally used as a church.

During 1821 to 1835, when the Mexican Army occupied the old mission complex, little was done to improve the church structure (Fig. 6,b). During the reoccupation of the Alamo by the Texans in 1835, and through the siege of 1836, no repairs were made to the old chapel other than to block up door and window openings and to construct an interior scaffold for riflemen (Smith, 1967). It was not until the U.S. Army occupation in 1849 that a frame gable roof was installed, along with repairing the upper walls, adding the top center gable, cutting new upper windows, and installing upper flooring (Fig. 6,c). In 1920, a new timber-framed gable roof with shingles was constructed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas after acquiring the famous structure. Then, in 1934, concrete vaults covered with leadcoated galvanized metal with standing-seam roof replaced the frame structure. The flat roofs over the tower bases and adjacent rooms are covered with the same material in a flat-locked seam. This roofing is still in use.

Of comparative interest, each of the five missions established along the San Antonio River have church facades, as well as plan and construction, which differ in form and tradition. As already noted, Mission San Antonio de Valero Church (the Alamo) is cruciform in plan, was to have two bell towers, and has a retable facade in the Early Baroque style. At Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepcíon (1740) the church is also cruciform, has two bell towers, and the retable facade is Plateresque, a later style following the Baroque in Mexico. And at Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo (1768), the large church is linear without transept, has only one bell tower, and the facade is an even later retable style, the Ultra-Baroque or Churrigueresque. The small church at Mission San Francisco de la Espada (1740) is cruciform in plan. It has an espadaña (wall pierced with arches in which bells are hung) above a plain facade with a moorish arch doorway.

Mission San Juan Capistrano church is linear with no transept. Along the west wall of the church are remnants of a series of arches, but otherwise it has a plain facade. The bell tower consists of a simple espadaña similar to that at Mission Espada; however, it is placed perpendicular to the end of the building and above the long axis wall facing the plaza.