San Jacinto Museum of History Association
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
George A. Hill, Jr., President
L. W. Kemp, Vice President
W. B. Bates, Secretary-Treasurer
A. C. Finn
Mrs. Madge W. Hearne
Dorothy W. Estes, Director
San Jacinto State Park Commission
J. Perry Moore, Chairman
Mary Tod
W. E. Kendall
San Jacinto Monument
The great shaft of San Jacinto, piercing the sky from the scene of the historic conflict between Sam Houston’s pioneers and Santa Anna’s Mexican invaders, was erected as a memorial to the Texas heroes, commemorating the Centennial of 1836. Appropriations aggregating $1,866,148 were made by the State of Texas and the Federal Government for the construction of the monument and improvement of San Jacinto State Park. Of this amount approximately $1,200,000 was used in building the monument.
On April 21, 1936, the one hundredth anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto, with impressive ceremonies, the ground was broken for the monument. Among the participants was General Andrew Jackson Houston, only surviving child of the Commander-in-Chief of the Texas Army at San Jacinto. The monument, 570 feet high, was officially dedicated April 21, 1939.
The reinforced concrete structure is faced with rough sawn fossilized limestone quarried near Leander, Williamson County, Texas. The interior walls are highly polished. The base of the building is 124 feet square and 36 feet high. The shaft is 47 feet square at the base and 30 feet at the top.
On the exterior walls of the shaft, about 90 feet above the ground, a frieze 178 feet around and 15½ feet high shows in relief the history of Texas from the coming of the Anglo-Americans to the present day. This was executed by William McVey, Houston sculptor.