Goliad Memorial Auditorium

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Goliad Memorial Auditorium, and friend, this one's got a little bit of everything. Now, let's get into it. The year was 1937, and Goliad had something to celebrate.

Not just something, either. The whole state of Texas was marking a hundred years of itself, and the Texas Centennial was the kind of occasion that gets legislatures moving and architects dreaming. It started with money, as most good stories do.

The 43rd State Legislature allocated three million dollars for the Centennial. Then the 44th Legislature created the Commission of Control for the Texas Centennial celebrations to approve the plans and the funding. Now, somebody had to fight to make sure Goliad got its share of that, and that somebody was County Judge James Arthur White, born in 1878.

The judge lobbied for the designation of a State Historical Park and the construction of an auditorium. He made his case, and Goliad walked away with a hundred thousand dollar grant from the Texas Centennial Commission and the United States Centennial Commission combined. Seventy thousand dollars of that was set aside for the project itself.

Now, when you've got seventy thousand dollars and a centennial to honor, you don't hire just anybody. The auditorium complex was designed by architects Raiford Stripling and Samuel Charles Phelps Vosper. The decorative embellishments, those wonderful details that make a building speak, were the work of sculptors Hugo Villa and Hannibal Pianta.

Willard Simpson, Sr. handled the structural engineering, and H.J. Rosenberg was the general contractor. Construction began in March of 1937.

Now, they weren't slow about it. By October of that same year, the thing was done. Complete.

A building that mixes beaux-arts and Spanish mission styles, with a flat roof, high octagonal windows in the walls, recessed doorjambs, and plaster moldings that depict pioneer life and the various ethnic groups who contributed to life in Goliad. Step inside and you've got an elevated stage, narrow plank floors, and a proscenium arch dressed up with bas-relief decorations. The building itself consists of three areas: the auditorium, the lobby, and a stadium attached right to the east facade.

The dedication came on December 3rd, 1937, and here's where the story gets wonderfully Texan. The dedication ceremony featured a turkey show. Not a speech by some dignitary, not a ribbon cutting, a turkey show, as a nod to the farms of the surrounding area.

You couldn't make that up if you tried, and the marker doesn't have to. Through the 1940s, the auditorium rang out with big band dances, and it has kept right on serving the community for cultural events ever since. County Judge White, who passed in 1953, lobbied for something that outlasted him by decades.

The architects, the sculptors, the engineer, the contractor, they built something that was finished by October and dedicated by December, and it's still standing, still holding events, still wearing those plaster moldings that tell Goliad's story right there on the walls. Some buildings are just buildings. This one was built to remember.

What the marker says

Completed in 1937, the Goliad Memorial Auditorium was built to commemorate the Texas Centennial. The 43rd State Legislature allocated $3 million for the Centennial and the 44th Legislature created the Commission of Control for the Texas Centennial celebrations to approve plans and funding. County Judge James Arthur White (1878-1953) lobbied for the designation of a State Historical Park and construction of an auditorium. Goliad received a $100,000 grant from the Texas Centennial Commission and the United States Centennial Commission, with $70,000 set aside for the project. The auditorium complex was designed by architects Raiford Stripling and Samuel Charles Phelps Vosper and the decorative embellishments were by sculptors Hugo Villa and Hannibal Pianta. Willard Simpson, Sr. was the structural engineer and the general contractor was H.J. Rosenberg. Construction began in March 1937 and was completed by October. The dedication of the building on Dec. 3, 1937, featured a turkey show as a nod to the area’s farms. The building consists of three areas including the auditorium, the lobby and a stadium attached to the east façade. The design and details of the auditorium are a mix of the beaux-arts and Spanish mission styles, featuring a flat roof, walls with high octagonal windows, recessed doorjambs and plaster moldings depicting pioneer life and the various ethnic groups who contributed to life in Goliad. The auditorium itself features an elevated stage, narrow plank floors and a proscenium arch with bas-relief decorations. The auditorium was used for big band dances in the 1940s and continues to serve the community as a space for cultural events. (2016)