llustration by Randell Tarin	Where were the bathrooms? An Informal Look at Sanitation in the 1836 Alamo by Kevin R. Young
For the Staff of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo and the Tour Guides of the Alamo who get asked this question way too often.

The Alamo isn't just a place, but an event that evokes questions. For scholars historians, researchers, Alamo buffs and the casual visitor, the historic site and its rich history seem to create a need to find answers. The quest may be as simple as "is the ancient Alamo church the original?" or as complicated as "how did David Crockett meet his end?" The compelling need to know is always there. Rarely does one come away with complete answers to many of the Alamo's historical puzzles. Perhaps this is part of the site's magical charm. At a place where cultures and political views often clash, where myth and legend have overtaken historical interpretation and in recent years, were popular culture seems to dominate primary source documentation, the seeker of truth will often find themselves stuck in a swamp of conflicting information and interpretations. ^l On occasion, these seekers stray from the usual path of often-asked questions and will seek out the more unusual. These kinds of questions are a welcome relief to the usual strain of "what flag flew over the Alamo?" or "what type of clothing did the New Orleans Greys wear?" What makes their unusual questions so compelling is that they are often asked with the same sincerity as those related to the more central and popular Alamo mysteries. Therefore, they deserve something more than a simple shrug of the shoulders or a look of amazement. ² To this end comes this particular Alamo riddle, often asked of Alamo scholars and staff members:

It's an intriguing question. After all, we've figured out where the twenty or thirty head of "beaves" Travis wrote about in his famous letter of February 24, 1836, were kept. We know were the hospital was, where Travis had his headquarters, and which walls the Mexican Army attacked. In short, we know a fair amount about the physical layout of the 1836 Alamo. Still the issue of the Alamo bathrooms or "sinks" has yet to be resolved. The word "sinks" is applied here because it is the military term used by the United States Army during this period. Other terms such as privy, latrine, outhouse and other more vulgar nouns can be applied. The modern term "bathroom" gives a much more grandiose impression of what a military sink of the 19th Century was. Quoting the 1841 U.S. Army Regulations:

The sinks will always be hid from public view by encircling them with bushes or other blinds. A portion of the earth, dug out of them, ought every day to be thrown in to cover the filth, should the troops remain encamped on the same ground any length of time.3

For the purpose of this discussion, the term sink or sinks will be used in reference to the place where human bodily functions take place in an established sanitation area.⁴

The historical record does not offer a clear historical lineage of the sanitation facilities of the Alamo. Founded as the Spanish mission, San Antonio de Valero, the establishment arrived on its present site around 1724 where work on permanent structures was commenced. By the 1790s, the Mission consisted of a granary, convento (priests quarters), quarters and workshops for the Native American converts and an unfinished church. Missionary activity at the site ceased in 1793, but human habitation continued. Area settlers who lived in the houses in and around the mission compound joined the surviving Indian converts. A considerable barrio or pueblo took shape. In 1803, the Segunda Compañía Volante de San Carlos de Parras arrived in San Antonio and converted the mission's three main buildings for military use. The convento became a barracks and briefly a hospital. The church, still unfinished, provided a covered sacristy for religious services, while the southern barracks were rebuilt and fortified to serve as a guard house and jail. The Compañía de San Carlos de Parras made one more important contribution to the site. From the town in Coahuila, from which the Compañía was raised, San José y Santiago del Alamo de Parras, came a new name for Mission Valero--the Alamo.

From 1803 until the Texas war for Independence of 1835-36, the Alamo was the station for troops. Since the Compañía del Alamo (as the San Carlos de Parras Company became known) were cavalry, it was in fact, a cavalry post and corral. The first real infantry to occupy the site would be the Texians in the winter of 1836. After the famous siege and battle, the Alamo briefly reverted back to a Mexican cavalry station. With the Mexican army's defeat at San Jacinto and its retreat out of Texas, the site was partially demolished to deny its future use as a Texian fortification.⁵

In looking over the various inspection reports of the Alamo during its period as a missionary establishment, there is no mention of where human waste was disposed. The Alamo had an excellent irrigation system that brought water to and from the compound as well as it surrounding fields. These systems were not designed to remove waste but to bring water to the site. The exact location of the Alamo's sanitation facilities during the Spanish period remains unknown. Plans for the various Spanish presidios and the inspection notes that accompany them don't provide any clues as to the regulations regarding the placement of sinks. At present, there is no historical data concerning sinks to compare.⁶

At the time of the famous 1836 battle(the chief concern of most visitors and writers) there were at least four plats drawn of the Alamo. Three of these were from Mexican Army sources. The fourth, that of Alamo engineer Green B. Jameson, doesn't survive(although there were several versions of it drawn at later dates) nor did the plat drawn of the Alamo during the siege by Zapadores officer Ygnacio Labastida. The key to Jameson's map did survive but fails to provide any information as to the placement of the sinks. ⁷

The remaining two 1836 Alamo maps come from Lieutenant-Colonel José Sanchez-Navarro. He was a member of the prominent Coahuila ranch merchant family and inspector general for the State of Coahuila. Unlike Labastida, who only first laid eyes on the Alamo during the 1836 siege, Navarro had become well acquainted with the facility during the fall of 1835. Navarro was on the staff of General Martin Perfecto de Cos and was present during the Texian siege of San Antonio in the fall of 1835 and the subsequent battle in December which concluded with Cos's surrender. Navarro returned with Cos as part of Santa Anna's Army of Operations in February of 1836 and was present for the ten-day siege.⁸

Navarro's first plat is a highly detailed rendering of the Alamo and is called the attack map because it shows the movement of General Cos' attack column during the March 6th assault. Like all of the Alamo plats, it contains several irregularities that can only be explained as technical problems because of artistic differences. Like everything else concerning the Alamo, the period plats do not agree in some details. There's no reference to the position of the Alamo sinks in this particular Sanchez-Navarro plat. But his second drawing called "the vista map" makes an interesting notation in a walled-in area behind the barracks on the northeast side of the compound. Note # 16, is labeled as corral y comunes.⁹

A check of both period and modern Spanish dictionaries does not give a clear definition of the term comunes. Most refer to it as "commons" as in "House of Commons." It is also shown as a plural form of comun. An 1887 dictionary defines this word as La secreta o sitio donde se depositan las inmindicias. A 1950 dictionary defines the same word as retrete lugar o habita clon para la evacuaciones.¹⁰ Alamo questions have been debated to death over the meaning of particular Spanish words. But in this case, the meaning seems clear. In support, the second Sanchez-Navarro plat, in the #16 area, shows what appears to be a long trench with at least five structures associated with it. The placement of this inside a corral is also important. A corral is generally a messy place to start with, and animal waste certainly would have been present. Why not then place the human waste area in the same location? It is well away from the main human lodging, the food preparation and hospital areas.¹¹

If indeed comunes is Sanchez-Navarro's term for the Alamo sinks, then the next question would be, where physically would they have been located? Again, all Alamo plats vary, and in this case Sanchez-Navarro places the second Alamo corral as almost joining the north wall at the east. The second corral is behind the old convento or Long Barracks to the north of the Alamo church. Labastida does not show the corrals going that far to the north. The current interpretation of the historic site is that the first corral started about midway along the rear (east) of the convento/Long Barrack and ended at the break between that structure and the "L" shaped one story barracks at the northeast end of the plaza.¹²

Taking both theories into consideration, and again, assuming that Sanchez-Navarro did mean to reference the location of the Alamo sinks, the two possible locations would be:

1. Taking Sanchez-Navarro on face value, then in the middle of Houston Street, east of the Alamo Plaza, between the Alamo grounds and the Medical Arts Building, now the Emily Morgan Hotel.

Detail of Sanchez-Navarro Plat showing the probable location of the corral y comunes.

2. Taking modern interpretations of all Alamo plats into consideration, then in the middle of what is now called the Cavalry Courtyard on the Alamo grounds, about where the outdoor history talks are given to Alamo visitors. (near the new interpretive wall)¹³

An interesting side note is that from 1903-1982, there were no public restrooms at the Alamo. For years, the only such facility was located under he bandstand on Alamo Plaza South. With its remodeling during the American Bi-Centennial Celebration, visitors were on their own until the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, longtime custodians of the Alamo, erected public restrooms. The Alamo committee of the DRT approved the project in 1979 but it took until 1982 for the restrooms to be completed. It would appear that the DRT took some of the U.S. Army regulations to heart. The present bathrooms are located at the extreme back of the present Alamo complex.^l5