Adina de Zavala

Her work did not stop at the Alamo. In 1912 she organized the Texas Historical and Landmarks Association, which placed thirty-eight markers at historic sites in Texas, and she did perhaps more than anyone to stir interest in saving the Spanish Governor's Palace, which the city bought in 1928 and restored. In the 1930s she helped locate, near Crockett, the sites of the first two Spanish missions in Texas. Governor Pat Neff named her to the Texas Historical Board in 1923. She died on March 1, 1955, and is buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in San Antonio.

What the plaque says

Adina de Zavala As the granddaughter of Lorenzo de Zavala (1789-1836), first vice-president of the Republic of Texas, young Adina de Zavala was exposed to vivid accounts of Texas' Revolutionary and Republican past. She became a guiding force in the preservation of many of Texas' most revered historic structures and sites, including the Alamo, Mission San Francisco de Los Tejas in East Texas, and San Antonio's Spanish Governor's Palace. The "De Zavala Daughters," a women's group formed in Miss Adina in 1889, erected Texas' first historical markers and helped preserve San Antonio's Spanish missions. Her firm belief, later verified, was that remnants of Mission San Antonio de Valero, known in 1836 as the Alamo's long barracks, lay underneath the wooden exterior of buildings adjacent to the Alamo church. By 1893, as president of the De Zavala chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT), Miss Adina had secured the adjacent property owner's commitment to give the chapter first purchase option. In 1908, upon hearing that the 2-story long barracks were about to be razed, Miss Adina barricaded herself inside the buildings for three days and nights in an effort that ultimately prevented their destruction. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Alamo — steps away
  Mission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
• La Villita Historic Arts Village — 0.3 mi
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
• San Antonio River Walk — 0.3 mi
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 0.5 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.

More markers nearby

• Alamo Cenotaph — steps away
• In Re Ricardo Rodriguez — steps away
• Alamo Low Barracks and Main Gateway — steps away
• Site of Home (1850 to 1870) of Samuel Augustus Maverick — steps away