Upon completion of the investigations along the north wall, the DRT began the construction of a stockade wall along Houston Street. The first step in this construction was the excavation of a trench along the south side of the remains of the most recent wall (built in 1926) which had been removed down to ground level prior to our Phase I excavations.

This trench was dug along the entire length of the 1926 wall foundation, except where trees, utility meters, and underground pipes interfered. At this point, for several reasons, the idea of a stockade wall was reconsidered, and the decision was made to build a new stone wall to match the rest of the Alamo Park wall. The foundation of the 1926 wall had to be removed for this construction, which would cause further disturbance of the ground. This required CAR to carry out additional investigations (Phase II) in selected areas.

The Phase I work was done by a field crew of three technical staff assistants and numerous volunteer workers from the Southern Texas Archaeological Association (STAA), under the supervision of Anne Fox, CAR research associate. The investigations were carried out under the Texas Antiquities Committee Permit No. 196. All work was done in accordance with General Rules of Practice and Procedure Chapter 41.11 (Investigative Reports) of the Council of Texas Archeologists.

The additional work, Phase II, was done in February 1980. The crew of six was directed by James Ivey, under the supervision of Anne Fox.
 

Historical Background of The North Courtyard

Mission San Antonio de Valero was established on the west bank of the San Antonio River, about a mile south of San Pedro Springs, in the summer of 1718. In 1719 the mission was moved to the east bank of the river (Habig 1977:25, 32), about 3,500 ft south of the present old church structure which is now the Alamo Shrine.
 

By 1724 a small chapel with a stone tower and several small jacales had been built (Habig 1977:35). In that year the mission was severely damaged by high winds, so the location was again changed, to the present site (Habig 1977:35). Between 1724 and 1727, the first groundfloor rooms of the convento (the southern half of the present Long Barracks) were built. In 1727 Fray Miguel Sevillano de Paredes reported three rooms of the convento were complete, and a gallery and fourth room were under construction. A group of Indian quarters was complete, as were several strong jacales for the missionaries and one used as the church. Work had not yet begun on the new church, although the stone and other necessary materials had been collected. De Paredes indicated that construction of the new church could not begin for lack of a qualified stonemason, but he hoped work would start soon (Chabot 1937:140).

Nothing is known of the development of the mission buildings between 1727 and 1744, when a note in the baptismal records indicated the first stone of the new church was finally laid (Habig 1977:50). The delay from 1727 until 1744 was probably caused by the continuing absence of a competent mason, as well as the political and military difficulties of those years.

In 1745 Fray Francisco Xavier Ortiz inspected the Texas missions. He found the new church was under construction and the old one, the jacal mentioned in the 1727 report, had collapsed (Ortiz 1745). Ortiz said that while the


 

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