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Post by neferetus on Jun 20, 2007 22:59:57 GMT -5
Now I know where I saw that hole in the north wall covered with palisades. It was on Kaj´s Alamo model! So I guess he got that wrong... Kaj made his model in 1973 and a lot of new information on Alamo architecture has surfaced, since then. In the movie ALAMO, THE PRICE OF FREEDOM, the palisade covering the breach is similar to the one on Kaj's model. The production company set the palisade on fire and then had us soldados climb it with ladders, before jumping down into the pitch black unknown below the wall. It was scary, not knowing exactly where or how you would land.
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Post by seguin on Jun 20, 2007 23:48:19 GMT -5
Wow - that must have been fun. Scary but fun. I don´t think I´ve ever seen that movie. Maybe I can get it on Amazon. Btw, I just ordered Wayne´s Alamo movie, Edmondson´s book, Seguin´s auto-bio and Jackson´s "graphic novel", Indian Lover, about Houston. And I´m about to order your book too, as you know. So I´m gonna have quite an Alamo fiest...
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Post by Greg C. on Jun 21, 2007 8:29:23 GMT -5
Seguin, Alamo The price of Freedom is not available on dvd or vhs for that matter. the only way to see it is if you go to rivercenter mall in san antonio and watch it in their Imax theatre. many of us are still hoping that it will be released on dvd sometime.
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Post by seguin on Jun 21, 2007 14:40:36 GMT -5
I see. Thanks, Davy! Yes, let´s hope it will be released some day...
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Post by neferetus on Oct 5, 2007 10:43:15 GMT -5
This replica of one of the Alamo's earth-stuffed cowhide barricades used to be inside one of the windows of the Long Barracks. It has since been relegated to the NE corner of the modern-day Alamo courtyard near the restrooms and soda machines. I wish that they would put it back. It was one of the few references to the Alamo as a fort.
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Post by seguin on Oct 5, 2007 16:26:26 GMT -5
What a strange contraption but I guess it served it´s purpose. They must have been out of sand bags...
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Post by neferetus on Oct 9, 2007 13:31:54 GMT -5
As you can see, ALAMO: The Price Of Freedom faithfully reproduced the semi-circular parapets of earth rammed inbetween two stretched cowhides. (Curious, how THE ALAMO (2004) has nothing whatsoever guarding the barrack doors. The soldados merely rush into the unprotected building and then kill all its occupants in about five seconds without having to resort to captured Texian cannon, as in POF.)
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Post by neferetus on Oct 14, 2007 13:02:42 GMT -5
The Alamo church , as we see it today, bears little resemblance to it's appearence during the siege of February 23rd/March 6, 1836. The famous upper gable, or hump, was not in evidence in 1836. The church, essentially an unfinished structure, had a more or less flat ridgeline on it's facade...rather plain looking. really. We have U.S. Army Major Babbit to thank for it's now world famous "hump". While restoring the church in 1850, a new pitched roof was added. To hide the unsightly peak of the new roof from view along the facade, Babbit thought to conceal it behind an elaborate, curved gable. The deception worked and continues to fascinate visitors to the "Shrine of Texas Liberty" even unto this day. Not everyone was happy about the addition of the "hump" however. Prominent San Antonio citizen and local historian William Corner said (in the 1890's) that it detracted from the church's prior rugged looking appearence. He said that it looked more like the head-board (bedstead) of a four-poster bed. "Piecemeal, a little here, a little there", Corner remarked, "the Alamo has been all but restored off the face of the earth."
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Post by Bromhead24 on Oct 14, 2007 17:14:13 GMT -5
I wonder what they served in the cafeteria?
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Post by powderkeg on Oct 14, 2007 17:30:35 GMT -5
In the lower left niche is what appears to be a sign. If it was, I wonder what it said.
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Post by neferetus on Oct 17, 2007 20:14:14 GMT -5
I wonder what they served in the cafeteria? I wondered about that, too.
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Post by neferetus on Oct 17, 2007 20:14:43 GMT -5
In the lower left niche is what appears to be a sign. If it was, I wonder what it said. I wondered about that, too.
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Post by neferetus on Oct 17, 2007 20:18:22 GMT -5
Here's a kind of lop-sided photo of the Alamo chapel's facade undergoing renovation. Notice how, after the workers on the scaffolding have applied the weather proofing, the individual stones seem to be highlighted?
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Post by neferetus on Oct 18, 2007 13:19:28 GMT -5
The south wall of the Alamo chapel. Here's what the upper walls of the facade would look like, without any sort of weather proofing.
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Post by Bromhead24 on Oct 18, 2007 17:16:33 GMT -5
I don't remember seeing that crack in the middle and it looks like the top 18" or so is concrete.
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Post by neferetus on Oct 18, 2007 19:05:51 GMT -5
I don't know why they thought it necessary to reveal that grooved line down the center of the wall. Back when the U.S. army was in control of the chapel, a building addition was added in the open space between the baptistry and south transept to be used as offices. When the addition was later demolished, the groove---which showed where the old army roof once set in--- was filled in. Sometime between the late 90's and 2001, the groove was 'rediscovered' and the mortar removed. In my opinion, it does not add anything to the building.
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Post by neferetus on Oct 18, 2007 19:08:29 GMT -5
...it looks like the top 18" or so is concrete. This was to help support the Alamo's new arched roof which was added in 1935 for the centennial.
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Post by neferetus on Nov 7, 2007 12:07:52 GMT -5
Here are the preservationists at work.
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Post by Bromhead24 on Nov 8, 2007 14:16:59 GMT -5
It seems like they filled in the old 1840's office roof section grooves.
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Post by neferetus on Nov 8, 2007 16:00:24 GMT -5
It seems like they filled in the old 1840's office roof section grooves. No. that's when they "discovered" it.
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