Plan would bring back ‘grand dame of a theater’
San Antonio’s historic Sunken Garden Theater, built in 1930 in an old quarry, may be brought back to life under a $62M proposal
SAN ANTONIO — Built during the Depression on the site of an old limestone quarry, the neoclassical Sunken Garden Theater has brought live music and outdoor performances to this city’s Brackenridge Park for more than 90 years.
But the venue, which in its heyday hosted major concerts by the likes of Bob Dylan and Carlos Santana, rarely brings in big acts these days and has fallen into disrepair.
The nonprofit Brackenridge Park Conservancy plans to revive the historic 1930 theater in the next couple of years with a $62 million public-private plan that will incorporate architectural elements such as its Roman stone columns while providing “firstclass amenities for artists and patrons.”
Most spectators will sit in fixed stadium seating under a massive timber-frame roof. There also will be a grass berm for seating, an enclosed stage house, an expanded venue entrance and restored waterfall features.
Built as an amphitheater, Sunken Garden today includes about 880 fixed seats and room for 4,000 or so people on the lawn. Renderings show the expanded venue would have 5,900 reserved seats and lawn seating for an additional 1,100 people.
The project, to be finished in 2024 if all goes well, envisions new landscaping, permanent restrooms, concessions, merchandising areas and a VIP lounge.
“We can now be good stewards and restore a deteriorating cityowned facility that will be a jewel for generations to come. Let’s make that happen,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who saw a concert there in the 1990s by the rock band Grand Funk Railroad, known for its 1970s hits such as “We’re an American Band” and “Some Kind of Wonderful.”
Sunken Garden was built near the Japanese Tea Garden in an abandoned Alamo Cement quarry, which also became the location of the nearby San Antonio Zoo.
Joe Calvert, conservancy board chairman, said his late father, Jim Calvert, attended the first symphony performance at the venue in 1939.
“Like Brackenridge Park itself, the Sunken Garden Theater has created enduring, priceless memories for generations of our citizens. The renovation and rebirth of this grand venue will ensure that generations to come will create their own special memories from this special stage,” Calvert said at a news conference.
The conservancy has asked for $25 million each from the city and Bexar County and has committed to raise the remaining $12 million for the project.
The conservancy projects that the theater would generate an economic impact to San Antonio of nearly $240 million in the first 10 years, with about 1,000 fulltime jobs in the construction phase and 170 jobs supporting maintenance and operations.
The venue gets little use these days but would be a magnet for major music artists touring through Texas, especially as concerns about the pandemic fully subside, officials said. A professional contractor would be retained by the city to oversee operations.
County Commissioner Trish DeBerry, calling Brackenridge the “Central Park of San Antonio,” said the county will “take a very hard look at what we can invest” in the renovation.
“This grand dame of a theater deserves reinvestment” as a cultural, historic and financial asset for the community, DeBerry said.
In addition to a proposed $1.2 billion bond issue, conservancy officials also are looking at possible use of federal stimulus funds to support the project. The City Council is set to begin discussions of the bond issue Wednesday.
“We can now be good stewards and restore a deteriorating city-owned facility that will be a jewel for generations to come. Let’s make that happen.”
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg