SAN ANTONIO — Before its 2010 closure, Lerma's Nite Club was one of the longest-running conjunto dance halls in Texas.
On Sunday, music filled the hall once again during its grand opening.
The club that sits on the corner of Laurel and Zarzamora is a building with a storied past. For decades, the sound of accordions and twelve-string guitars filled the space inside.
Occasionally, so did the voice of Blanca Rosa, who on Sunday drew enthusiastic applause.
Rosa, who will be turning 90 years old in November, first started singing at Lerma’s when she was 15.
"Can you Imagine?" said Rosa.
She says in the 60 years that it was open, Lerma's became a prime destination for conjunto music.
"If you came to San Antonio, you were a dancer. (If) you didn't come to Lerma’s, you weren't a dancer," Rosa said. “Because you had to come to Lerma's."
It first opened in the 1940s as the Sombrero Nite Club. Despite its popularity, by 2010 it had become run down and was shut down for code violations.
The city was ready to tear it down.
"But we were able to mobilize people quickly through social media," said Susanna Segura with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. "We kind of sounded the alarm and said, 'Hey, this building is in danger of coming down.'"
Segura helped get the building added to the National Register of Historic Places. She's been working to reopen it ever since.
"It's exciting. It's great to see all the people, great to hear all the stories,” she said. “I can't wait to hear more stories."
Only now, instead of a nightclub, Lerma’s will become a community center. The plan is for it to eventually house a Bexar County Bibliotech digital library, which staff expect to open early in 2024.
"That'll offer an opportunity for people to have access to hotspots, smart devices, Internet access, printing and all the other programs that the Bibliotech offers,” Segura said.
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