Daughters of the Republic of Texas

In 1917 the legislature made the Old Land Office Building on the Capitol grounds in Austin the Daughters' museum and headquarters, kept on its top floor until 1989 while the United Daughters of the Confederacy had a museum below; the DRT opened its own building in Austin on November 6, 1991. The state placed the French Legation in their custody on August 25, 1949, and the restored house opened on April 15, 1956. In 1961 the legislature adopted the Daughters' design for the reverse of the Great Seal, with six flags, the Alamo, the Gonzales cannon and Vince's Bridge.

What the plaque says

Daughters of the Republic of Texas On November 6, 1891, seventeen women met at the home of Mrs. Andrew Briscoe at this site to organize an auxiliary to the Texas Veterans Association. Mrs. Anson Jones was elected president of the new organization, Daughters of the Lone Star Republic. Goals set for the group included preserving the memories of Texas Revolution heroes, instilling Texas patriotism in the state's school children, preservation of historic sites, and promoting statewide celebrations of Texas Independence Day (March 2) and San Jacinto Day (April 21). The first annual meeting of the organization was held in Lampasas on April 21, 1892. A resolution was passed to change the group's name to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. By 1892 the first two chapters had been formed, one in Galveston and one in Houston. The DRT has been in the forefront of many historic preservation projects throughout the state. Clara Driscoll, on behalf of the D. R. T., wrote personal checks to save the Alamo from demolition. The organization also led efforts to preserve and commemorate the San Jacinto Battlefield site, and maintains the old General Land Office and French Legation buildings in Austin as museums. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 0.9 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Emancipation Park — 1.5 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 1.9 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Rothko Chapel — 2.6 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old Houston Academy — steps away
• M. D. Anderson — steps away
• Christ Church Cathedral — 0.3 mi
• Harris County — 0.4 mi