Lone Star Base of the Republic of Texas Legation Memorial Unveiled in Washington, Honoring Eight Diplomats
On November 5, 2026, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Kevin Lilly, and members of the Elisabet Ney Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas unveiled the Lone Star base of the Republic of Texas Legation Memorial at 630 Indiana Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., marking the start of construction of the memorial. The memorial honors the eight diplomats who represented the Republic of Texas in Washington from 1836 to 1845 and negotiated the admission of Texas into the United States as the 28th state.
The base unveiled today is a five-pointed star of white Mount Airy granite, set in an existing granite planter on the 600 block of Indiana Avenue NW, steps from the U.S. Navy Memorial. The memorial will rise from the base: a five-sided plinth topped by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas medallion and engraved with the story of the Texas Legation, a map of the Republic of Texas and the names of the eight diplomats Texas sent to Washington. Plantings native to Texas and the Mid-Atlantic will surround a single sweetbay magnolia, representing the Lone Star State. The site is federal land under the National Park Service.
The location is steeped in the Legation's history. According to research by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the site sits among five of the eight places where the Legation's diplomats lived and worked out of boarding houses and hotels in Washington; Texas Minister Memucan Hunt resided in 1837 and 1838 at the site of today's Navy Memorial.
"As a native Texan with more pride in our State after the recent election than ever before, I am pleased that this new monument recognizes an important part of our Texas heritage," said Congressman Doggett. He said eight Texans spent almost a decade conducting negotiations for the admission of Texas into the United States, and that the memorial "will likely become another point of interest especially for Texas visitors to our capital." He noted that Americans traveling in Europe can find plaques in both London and Paris that commemorate the Texas Legation, while Washington had not followed suit, and credited the Daughters of the Republic of Texas with spearheading the work, with Kitty Hoeck leading the way. "Because Texas history is America's history," he said.
The memorial was approved by Congress in legislation authored by Doggett, the Republic of Texas Legation Memorial Act (H.R. 3349), introduced in June 2019, passed with bipartisan support and signed into law on December 22, 2020. The Daughters then won final approval of the site and design from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission in 2025 and raised the full cost privately; the law bars federal funds to build the memorial.
From 1836 to 1845, the Republic of Texas kept a diplomatic legation in Washington, working first for U.S. recognition and then for annexation. Texas became the 28th state on December 29, 1845.
Source: U.S. House of Representatives
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国海军纪念堂广场，位于华盛顿 Pennsylvania Avenue，公使馆纪念碑选址在其数步之外（CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: The U.S. Navy Memorial plaza on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, steps from the Legation memorial site (CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
