Historical Marker
Goliad Memorial Auditorium
Goliad, Goliad County · Texas
Erected 2016
The walls are poured concrete only three inches thick, stiffened by ribs on the inside and still printed with the grain of their board forms. Under the roofline the west front names thirteen people from Goliad's revolutionary years, among them Fannin, Milam and Duval, and a Señora Alves, a misspelling of Francita Alavez. The wings carry a frieze of early ranch brands, the gallery columns wear longhorn heads on Ionic capitals, and the ironwork came from Voss Metal Works in San Antonio. The 1,200-seat stadium on the east side now faces a rodeo arena.
What the plaque says
Goliad Memorial Auditorium 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)
Where it stands
28.65861, -97.38304 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Goliad State Park and Historic Site — 0.3 miMission Espíritu Santo on the San Antonio River, a mission ranch whose herds seeded Texas cattle country, rebuilt from ruin by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
- Presidio La Bahía — 0.8 miA Spanish fort on its third site since 1749, held in turn by filibusters, insurgents and Fannin's Fort Defiance, rebuilt in stone in the 1960s around a chapel that never fell.
- Zaragoza Birthplace State Historic Site — 0.8 miA rebuilt stone house beside La Bahía marking where Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza, the general of the Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo, was born in 1829.
- Fannin Memorial Monument — 0.9 miThe 1938 pink granite memorial over the common grave of Fannin's men, shot on the roads out of Goliad on Palm Sunday 1836, the grave itself found again only in the 1930s.