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The $550 million local and state makeover of Alamo Plaza reached another milestone on Wednesday—a topping out ceremony for the new Texas Cavaliers Education Center.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham joined local dignitaries, and school students at the ceremony to sign a giant beam before it was lifted into place to top off the skeletal frame for the building.
Buckingham said the facility will "not only protect the legacy of the Alamo—it will also empower young Texans to connect with it in ways were never imagined."
The education center, scheduled to be open in 2026, will be the first stop for students visiting the mission-turned-fortress that is considered the cradle of Texas Independence from Mexico for the famous 1836 battle that took place there.
The education center will house an early learner's hub, STEAM lab, a studio to host distance learning sessions for students who can't visit the grounds in-person, an orientation center, and garden, and what's called an outdoor learning area.
Alamo Trust Executive Director Kate Rodgers said the facility will be a good starting point for students before they begin an exploration of the Alamo grounds.
"We get about 140,000 school age children to come to the Alamo each and every year," she said. "We'll have about a thousand today as we near the end of this school year, in fact. But they've never had a place to call home, you know, no place to sit and eat lunch in the shade and so this, the Texas Cavalier's Education Center, will become just that, a home for the kiddos who come to see us every year."
The San Antonio-based Texas Cavaliers were the largest donors for the education center—a total of $5 million.
The more than half-a-billion-dollar Alamo Plaza is backed largely by the state, but the city and county have made significant contributions towards the project that has already seen the opening of a large collections building and increased demarcation of the Alamo's original footprint, including a recreation of the main gate.
A visitor's center and museum, including a 4D theater with simulated battle effects, is under construction in existing historic buildings across the street that face the historic facade of the Alamo.
The $185 million dollar visitor center and museum, scheduled to open in 2027, promises to tell the full story of all the peoples involved in events before, during, and after the battle.
The goal is to put Alamo Plaza on the scale with other national landmarks and make it a bigger and more educational experience for visitors.
