In light of the standoff in Oregon, KUT has published a reminder that Texas has seen its own share of standoffs. In fact, the state’s most famous battle spawned yet another siege of its own 70 years later. In 1908 a Daughter of the Texas Republic barricaded herself in a decrepit building that had once served as the Alamo’s convent.
Adina De Zavala was the granddaughter of Texas’s first vice president. De Zavala felt that the convent building should be preserved. She passionately believed this, even though the barracks had not existed during the famous 1836 siege. When a St. Louis hotel chain agreed to demolish the two-story structure to build an adjacent hotel, De Zavala enlisted three guards to let her into the property. She locked herself in before the site could be demolished, and spent three days in the building.
The standoff earned De Zavala national fame, and her protest helped preserve the convent’s long barracks.
