West Side night club spared from demolition reopens as new cultural community center

SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio night club spared from demolition reopened its doors Sunday as a new community center.

Once the heartbeat of conjunto music on the city’s West Side, Lerma’s Nite Club will preserve the musical traditions as the new cultural community center.

Pedro Lopez used to perform and play the drums at Lerma’s every Sunday. He said the reopening brought back a lot of memories.

“I’ve seen a lot of people that used to come over here to dance,” Lopez said.

He’s just one of the many conjunto musicians who got their start at Lerma’s. Now the tradition and culture behind conjunto music will continue to be passed on.

There will be accordion classes for every age every Saturday.

“It’s not going to be a dance place. (It’s) going to preserve cultura, musica,” Lopez said.

The building was set to be demolished in 2010, but community support sparked by the Esperanza Peace And Justice Center saved it.

The City of San Antonio And Bexar County each pitched in $500,000 to preserve the building’s historic and cultural significance.

The most recent owner died before he could see the culture center open.

Lerma’s Nite Club was and will continue to be a West Side community hub. The original owners daughter, Rachel, said her father would have wanted that.

“He just believed in people who believed in building up the neighborhood,” she said.

So far, 150 people are on a waiting list for accordion classes at the new center. The students range from 9 years old to 90.

The building will also serve as a Bibliotech digital library.

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