he ALAMO. San Antonio de Valero Mission (originally referred to as San Antonio de Padua) was authorized by the viceroy of Mexico in 1716. Fray Antonio de Olivares, who brought with him Indian converts and the records from San Francisco Solano Mission near San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande, established the mission at the site of present San Antonio in 1718 and named it San Antonio de Valero in honor of Saint Anthony de Padua and the Duke of Valero, the Spanish viceroy. The present site was selected in 1724; the cornerstone of the chapel was laid on May 8, 1744. Founded for the purpose of Christianizing and educating the Indians, the mission later became a fortress and was the scene of many conflicts prior to the siege of 1836. Its activity as a mission began to wane after 1765, and it was abandoned in 1793, the archives being removed to nearby San Fernando Church

After the departure of the Franciscans, the seventy-five-year-old mission entered a long period of rather haphazard use. In addition to its famous role in the Texas revolution, the site's subsequent functions have included quarters for both Spanish and Mexican frontier troops; housing for local Indians, Tejanos, and itinerant squatters; hospital; army supply depot; Masonic lodge; jail; commercial store and warehouse; public park; tourist attraction; movie set; and historic site. This multiple use has greatly complicated efforts to document or describe the Alamo at any given time. Another difficulty arises from semantic ambiguity in many descriptions of the site, with the title Alamo sometimes used to refer exclusively to the church building and sometimes to the entire mission complex.

It's difficult to pinpoint when the Valero mission was first called "Alamo." Many early references address La Compañía de Alamo de Parras as "El Alamo," which was often seen as an abbreviated name form in correspondence and other official documents.

The predominant name forms used by the company from its arrival in 1803 until and after 1807 were "San Antonio de Valero" or "Bejar", referring to the Presidio de Bejar to which the company had been sent as reinforcements.

However, in January of 1807, Antonio Cordero, in his correspondence to the commandant at Trinidad wrote:

...Among the 25 men from the Alamo, who in compliance with orders of the day, must go from that post to Atascosito, you will send the gunsmith of that company with his anvil and other implements...

"...Your Lordship, should give heed to the necessity of furnishing horses to the troops at Bejar, Bahia, and Alamo..."
[Spanish Archives Translations, J. Villasana Haggard. Vol.22]

Obviously, these instances refer to the Company and not the buildings. There was a never a deciding moment in history when the mission was called the Alamo, but it was rather a gradual process evolving from references such as Cordero's and Salcedo's. It is important to remember that the 1807 references may well have been before the planting of the Alameda, possibly killing any hopes by the legend lovers that the name came from the nearby row of cottonwoods.

Other documents are found to support this common usage. One such document was an agreement between the priest at San Fernando and the chaplain of the Alamo Company on December 28, 1818, regarding the saying of morning mass at the Alamo (they use that name). There is also a witness record dated April 14, 1825, for the sale of a horse at the Pueblo de Alamo de Parras.

The lack of the tag, Compañía, on both the 1807 and 1818 references is significant. They both identify the site as the Alamo, and not the military company (though these references are obviously directly due to the association with the Alamo company).

Between 1832-1835, the name Alamo gained prominence. Over time, it may have simply been forgotten that the Compañía once came from Alamo De Parras, whose origins were now in the distant past.

Among the Mexican military in San Antonio, "Valero" fell from usage altogether. This becomes more evident with the onset of the Texas Revolution and the Anglo incursion upon Bejar.

On February 23, 1836, Col. William B. Travis entered the Alamo with a force that later to totaled approximately 187 men. Mexican forces under the command of Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna totaled approximately 5,000 men. The siege of the Alamo lasted thirteen days and was climaxed on March 6 with a complete loss of all the combatant Texans. 

After the fall of the Alamo, the building was practically in ruins, but no attempt was made at that time to restore it. The Republic of Texas, on January 13, 1841, passed an act returning the church of the Alamo to the Catholic Church. After Texas was annexed to the United States, it was declared that the Alamo was property of the United States, and in 1848 the United States government took over the building and grounds and until the Civil War used them for quartermaster purposes. For some time the Alamo was claimed by the city of San Antonio, the Catholic Church, and the United States government. The United States government finally leased the property from the Catholic Church and made some improvements. During the Civil War the Confederates used the building, but after the close of the war the United States government again took over and used it until 1876.

Under an act of April 23, 1883, Texas purchased from the church the Alamo property and placed the Alamo in the custody of the city of San Antonio on condition that the city should care for the building and pay a custodian for that purpose. This system continued until January 25, 1905, when the Texas legislature passed a resolution ordering the governor to purchase that part of the old Alamo fortress occupied by a business concern. It was further ordered that the governor should deliver the property thus acquired, with the property then owned by the state (the chapel of the Alamo), to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

A controversy over custody of the Alamo developed between the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the De Zavala chapter of that organization at San Antonio, and for a time there was a controversy between the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and Governor O. B. Colquitt concerning restoration. Several appropriations for funds to improve the Alamo have been made, the largest being in connection with the celebration of the Texas Centennial.  The Texas Centennial, marking 100 years of Texas independence, was officially celebrated in 1936. In the 1990s the Alamo was in custody of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and remained the center of disputes over the custody, presentation, and boundaries of the site.