HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Adina Emilia de Zavala

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Teacher, historian and preservationist Adina Emilia De Zavala was born in Harris County, Texas, on November 28, 1861. She was the daughter of Augustine and Julia Tyrrell De Zavala, and the granddaughter of Lorenzo De Zavala, first Vice-President of the Republic of Texas. Adina spent her early years in Galveston, before moving with her family to a ranch near San Antonio circa 1873. Miss Adina was a founding member of "De Zavala's Daughters," one of the earliest preservation groups in the state of Texas. Among de Zavala's most renowned contributions to the preservation of Texas history was hre role in saving the Alamo Long Barracks from demolition. De Zavala not only secured funding from philanthropist Clara Driscoll for the purchase of the structure, but she also barricaded herself inside the military quarters in February of 1907 when she feared the building was to be razed. Besides her dedication to saving portions of the Alamo compound, De Zavala initiated a public effort that culminated in protecting several of Texas' most revered historic structures and sites, including the legendary missions and Spanish Governors' Palace in Bexar County, and Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in east Texas. In 1938, De Zavala organized the Texas Historical and Landmarks Association. The civic group installed thirty-eight markers at historic sites thorughout Texas. Two months after her death in 1955, the Texas Legislature honored Adina De Zavala for her "life of devotion to Texas history, folklore, and general civic and patriotic work," as well as her commitment to "immortalizing Texas history for the ages." (2008)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Granddaughter of the Republic of Texas's first vice-president, Adina De Zavala became a teacher, historian, and one of the state's earliest and most determined preservationists. She helped save the Alamo's Long Barracks from demolition — famously barricading herself inside in 1907 — and worked to protect the Spanish missions, the Governor's Palace, and other landmarks. In 1938 she founded an association that installed dozens of historical markers across Texas.

Why it matters

De Zavala helped invent the very practice of historic preservation in Texas, ensuring that the Alamo and other sites survived to become touchstones of American memory.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Texas was a state busy remembering — and, just as often, forgetting — its own past. The heroic era of the Republic was slipping out of living memory, and the physical remnants of Spanish colonial and revolutionary Texas stood neglected, crumbling, or squarely in the path of a growing city's ambitions.

This was also the age when American women, still barred from much of public and political life, found powerful outlets in civic and preservation work. Historical societies and heritage associations gave women a platform to shape public memory, raise funds, and fight — sometimes fiercely — for buildings and sites that men in power were content to let fall.

In San Antonio, no site carried more weight than the Alamo. What survived of its old compound had become contested ground, and the question of what to save, and what to tear down, would test the resolve of one determined woman.

People & events

Adina Emilia De Zavala was born in Harris County in 1861, granddaughter of Lorenzo De Zavala, the first vice president of the Republic of Texas. Raised in Galveston and then on a ranch near San Antonio, she became a teacher, historian, and preservationist, and a founding member of 'De Zavala's Daughters,' one of the earliest preservation groups in the state.

Her most famous stand came at the Alamo's Long Barracks. She secured funding from philanthropist Clara Driscoll to purchase the structure, and in February 1907, fearing the building was about to be razed, she barricaded herself inside the old military quarters. It was an act of physical defiance in defense of a building — and it worked to keep the demolition at bay.

De Zavala's work reached far beyond the Alamo. She championed the preservation of the Spanish missions and the Spanish Governor's Palace in Bexar County, and Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in East Texas. In 1938 she organized the Texas Historical and Landmarks Association, which installed thirty-eight markers at historic sites across the state. Two months after her death in 1955, the Texas Legislature honored her lifelong devotion to Texas history.

Its place in the American story

Historic preservation, which Americans now take for granted, had to be invented — and it was often women like Adina De Zavala who invented it. Long before federal programs and official landmark registers, private citizens decided that old buildings held meaning worth defending, and they fought, lobbied, and occasionally barricaded to save them.

Her stand at the Long Barracks is a founding story of that movement. The instinct to say 'this stays' rather than let the past be cleared for the new is now woven into how the whole country treats its heritage, from courthouse squares to battlefields.

There is a deeper resonance, too. A granddaughter of the Republic's first vice president devoted her life to keeping Texas history from vanishing — and in doing so helped ensure that the Alamo and the missions survived to become touchstones of American memory, visited by millions who owe their experience partly to her stubbornness.

If you visit

This is a memorial, so come to it as a place of recognition rather than spectacle — a moment to consider that the landmarks you may visit elsewhere in San Antonio exist in part because one woman refused to let them fall.

Let it reframe the rest of your day. If your travels take you to the Alamo, the Spanish missions, or the Governor's Palace, you are walking through the results of the preservation battles De Zavala helped fight. Look at those old walls and remember that their survival was never guaranteed.

Standing here, imagine the resolve it took to lock oneself inside a threatened building and wait. It is a reminder that history is not only made by soldiers and statesmen, but also by those who decide, against the tide, that the past is worth keeping.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · Adina Emilia De Zavala
  • · Clara Driscoll
  • · Lorenzo De Zavala

Related events

  • · Preservation of the Alamo Long Barracks

Themes & tags

Women's HistoryEducationMemorial

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