Back in action: Edinburg reopens historic auditorium for cultural events

EDINBURG — In the early 1940s, big band leader Glenn Miller played at the old Edinburg Junior College Auditorium.

Miller, one of the best-selling artists in the swing era, was one of a number of famous musicians, speakers and other entertainers who delighted Rio Grande Valley audiences in the 1930s and ’40s.

The facility — erected in 1926 —remains one of the city’s oldest buildings.

And now that Edinburg has spent $100,000 to renovate the aging structure behind the City Hall, city leaders hope the auditorium will become a cultural center again.

Jay Mason, a Southern California-based saxophone and woodwind artist from the Grammy-nominated Big Phat Band, played at the auditorium Friday at its grand re-opening.

His appearance was a nod to the historical significance of the auditorium that once drew luminaries like Glenn Miller, said Allan Perkins, the jazz director for Edinburg North High School. Mason played with the Edinburg North High School Jazz Cats in front of a packed house at the auditorium.

Perkins, who knows Mason from his own time as a band director in California, said Mason’s appearance here gave his students an opportunity to learn from a leading jazz musician.

“It’s a chance to inspire them about what is really our music in America, which is jazz,” Perkins said. “They get one of the greatest educations about the music that was born (in America).”

The Gothic revival-style auditorium was built in 1926 to serve the new Edinburg Junior College, the lone high school and the community. It was designated a Texas Historic Landmark in 1989.

High school and college choirs and bands performed on its stage, and drama students presented plays there in the fall and spring. In 1938, a group of residents formed Cultural Arts Inc., which brought in first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, writer Carl Sandburg and soprano opera singer Lily Pons, among others.

The college — which became the University of Texas-Pan American — discontinued use of the auditorium in 1971, but the high school continued to use it until it was deeded to the city in 1984.

It received intermittent use from that time on, most recently as a place to have orientation for jurors serving at the courthouse.

The auditorium has been dormant since construction began on City Hall, which incorporated the auditorium into its plans, said Edinburg City Manager Ramiro Garza. The municipality intends to use the auditorium as a centerpiece for a proposed corridor between City Hall and the university.

The auditorium can serve as an anchor for the cultural events the city wants to bring to the area as part of the downtown master plan it is developing, said Edinburg Mayor Richard Garcia, who delivered the state-of-the-city address earlier this month in the auditorium. With seating for up to 750 people, the venue can house large audiences for special events.

Folding chairs comprised the ground-level seating Friday, but the auditorium’s original seats were found in storage. Once replaced, the mayor said, the auditorium will become a cultural center for the city again.

“It’s a beautiful building,” Garcia said. “It’s well built and will serve the community for a long time to come.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.