Runge Bandstand

The bandstand's 1924 rebuilding fits a town that did much of its own building. Until 1912 Runge was run by the Runge Town Company, with Gus Tips as its agent; that year it incorporated and elected Tips its first mayor. In 1931, the year after a deadly tornado, the city put up a city hall, a fire station and an auditorium. The state made the bandstand an official historic site in 1970. A Runge Museum opened in 1973 and lasted until fire destroyed it on February 29, 1992. The stand itself has an upper floor.

What the plaque says

Runge Bandstand Originally built before 1900, this structure was rebuilt in 1924 by the Civic League, "Rungetex" Brass Band, and others. Many stories have been told by older citizens of the good times spent here at band concerts, ice cream socials, and Easter egg hunts. INCISE ON BACK: Rededicated in 1970 by the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 9189, of Runge, Texas. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panna Maria — 12 mi
  The Silesian village on a plateau above the San Antonio River that claims the oldest permanent Polish settlement in America, with a church of 1878 and a ceiling found again in 2000.
• Goliad State Park and Historic Site — 25 mi
  Mission 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.
• Zaragoza Birthplace State Historic Site — 26 mi
  A 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.
• Presidio La Bahía — 26 mi
  A 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.

More markers nearby

• Runge, Texas — steps away
• Nordheim Shooting Club — 6.5 mi
• Jubilee Park Pavilion — 6.6 mi
• Cabeza — 6.6 mi