World Monuments Fund Responds to New Plans for Alamo Museum

World Monuments Fund (WMF) joins the Conservation Society of San Antonio in celebrating the approval of funding to rehabilitate the San Antonio Woolworth Building as part of the future home of the Alamo Museum. The decision by Judge Nelson Wolff and the Bexar County Commissioners follows a multi-year effort advocating the importance of an overlooked chapter in civil rights history, referred to by baseball legend Jackie Robinson as “a story that should be told around the world.” On March 16, 1960, Woolworth’s in San Antonio united with six other local establishments in peacefully desegregating their lunch counters. The new plan commits to preserving the memory of this day, both through conservation of the building and an exhibition that places it within the larger context of America’s struggle for civil rights.

WMF included the San Antonio Woolworth Building on the 2020 World Monuments Watch to encourage diverse participation in the decision-making process and to elevate the underrepresented narrative associated with the site. The positive developments of the past week are shared by many who have worked tirelessly to secure the future of the Woolworth Building as an important witness to social progress in San Antonio during a time of great racial unrest in the country. WMF looks forward to the opening of the new Alamo Museum as a milestone in enabling audiences to engage with this history and reflect on its relevance today.

To learn more, WMF invites you to watch two videos by the Conservation Society of San Antonio about the lunch counter sit-ins in Texas and San Antonio.  This video series, “Woolworth and Civil Rights: A First in the South,” premieres Friday, May 28 and is co-sponsored by the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM).  It is also made possible in part by grants from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and WMF.