The Gonzales Memorial Museum has started screening a newly produced film on its façade most evenings, offering residents and visitors a free, modern retelling of the events around the Battle of Gonzales and the famous “Come and Take It” flag.
Local story told with new focus
The 34-minute film, titled Texas Legacy in Lights, centres on Evaline DeWitt, the young woman credited with working with her mother to sew the improvised white banner bearing an image of a cannon and the words “Come and Take It.” The banner has long been a symbol of the town’s resistance during the opening skirmishes of the Texas Revolution.
John Franklin Rinehart, who grew up in Gonzales and directed the film, said the production aims to shift attention away from the more familiar Alamo narrative and towards local experiences that often receive less emphasis in popular recollections.
"I think being able to put your stamp on history as unique and as important as Gonzales is kind of like an achievement of a lifetime in a lot of ways. And I think that it really does speak to the heart of who this community is that they allowed me to do so. And that it gets to play every night for the next like 15 years is an incredible honour," Rinehart said.
Nightly projection brings history to the street
The museum, which houses what is said to be the original “Come and Take It” cannon, dates from the 1930s and has received a recent technological update to enable the large-scale façade projection. The screenings are free of charge and designed to be accessible to a broad audience without requiring entry to the museum itself.
Rinehart’s film also recognises the Immortal 32 — the group of men from Gonzales who went to the Alamo and were killed — and opens with the lesser-known episode known as the Runaway Scrape, the mass civilian evacuation ordered by Sam Houston after the fall of the Alamo.
Why the new perspective matters
By foregrounding Evaline DeWitt’s role and the civilian experience during the Runaway Scrape, the film seeks to broaden public understanding of the consequences of conflict beyond battlefield heroics. Rinehart told the project’s creative team he wanted to highlight how the town’s people — not only soldiers — were shaped by the events of 1835–36.
The projection approach also responds to contemporary trends in public history that favour inclusive storytelling and outdoor, low-cost displays to reach wider audiences, particularly families and casual passers-by who may not visit museum galleries.
Practical details for viewers
- The film is projected on the museum façade most evenings; admission to the screening is free.
- The Gonzales Memorial Museum retains its indoor exhibits, including the relic believed to be the original cannon, which visitors can view during regular opening hours.
- The projection has been planned to run nightly for a multi-year period, with Rinehart indicating a projection horizon of about 15 years.
While the projection makes the film accessible without entering the building, the museum continues to perform its role as a repository for artefacts and local archives that contextualise Gonzales’s place in Texas history.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Film title | Texas Legacy in Lights |
| Duration | 34 minutes |
| Projection site | Façade of the Gonzales Memorial Museum |
| Frequency | Most evenings; free to view |
Local pride and long-term visibility
For a small community that played an outsized role in the opening chapter of the Texas Revolution, the projection is both a cultural statement and a public service: it preserves memory while making it visible and immediate. Rinehart described the opportunity to contribute a lasting public work to the town where he grew up as an important personal milestone.
Presenting a community’s history through a new lens may invite fresh conversations about memory, gender and civic identity. For residents and visitors in Gonzales, the museum’s nightly projection offers a readily available moment to reflect on those questions without the barrier of paid admission.
Attendance details and the museum’s indoor opening hours were not provided with the initial announcement about the film projection.
