SAN ANTONIO — A historic west-side night club is becoming a gathering space for the community in a new way.
Architects revealed renderings of the Bibliotech coming to Lerma’s Nite Club on the corner of Laurel and Zarzamora Street.
The Bibliotech, which will occupy part of the historic building will provide residents educational resources, digital library connections and Internet access.
It took years to restore the iconic conjunto music venue to where it is today.
It’s already starting to function as a community space which means a lot to those who have fond memories of the building.
“Anybody who’s anybody in conjunto music has played at this building,” Susana Segura is the project development coordinator with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.
“It’s been a 13-year dream come true for me,” she says. She helped restore the building—with its glory days in mind. Segura, a daughter of Mexican immigrants who was raised in San Antonio, spent many nights here.
“When I turned 21, I started coming to this place to dance conjunto music, I’ve been coming to this place for probably 20 years before it shut down,” she said she often hears stories from neighbors of how their parents met at Lerma's.
Segura says the building hosted weddings, quinceañeras, and some scenes of the Selena movie were shot there.
Lerma’s closed in 2010, but Esperanza raised the money to renovate the building. They used the money to preserve the octagonal windows and install solar glass, removed paint from the exterior tile, and added a new roof.
They got help from the City of San Antonio and Bexar County Commissioners.
“Esperanza and the folks there are going to be good stewards of making sure that the community space is lively, that it’s accessible,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Justin Rodriguez told KENS 5.
Preliminary renderings of the building were presented to the commissioner’s court on Tuesday.
Some of the renderings revealed ‘Bibliotech’ as a large sign on the exterior of the building, which Rodriguez hopes will be “toned down.”
“It’s a historic site, we don’t want to overplay that or override the beauty,” Commissioner Rodriguez said.
The digital library space will include study rooms and recording studios in less than 4,000 square feet of space in the 10,000 square foot building.
“It’s really going to help close that digital divide,” Segura is excited this building will be a cornerstone of the west side’s past and its future.
“It’s just a way we can reconnect to our historical past here in San Antonio,” Segura adds.
The Bibliotech is expected to open in early 2024.
Right now—Esperanza uses some of the space for accordion lessons—so conjunto can continue to live on at the venue. They will also open satellite offices at the location within the next few months.