MISSION, Texas - Mission preservationists and historians have lost their battle to save nationally listed Roosevelt Auditorium.
A demolition firm used a bulldozer to crush a large chunk of the building Friday, thereby fulfilling the orders of Mission CISD’s board of trustees.
“It is just heartbreaking,” said Gabriel Ozuna, vice chair of Hidalgo County Historical Commission and chair of its preservation committee. Ozuna previously worked for the City of Mission as its historic preservation coordinator.
Roosevelt Auditorium was built in 1929 as part of Roosevelt Elementary School on the “Mexican” side of Mission. It was placed on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places in 2002. But, since that time Mission CISD has allowed the building to deteriorate. School board leaders say it would have cost $1.5 million to restore it.
At the time of demolition, Roosevelt Auditorium was No. 6 on Preservation Texas’ Most Endangered Places list.
Ozuna said he and other preservationists were hoping to get an injunction to stop the demolition. He said this would have bought him some time to put a plan in place to save an important component in Mission’s educational history.
Ozuna said he and others were trying to get the City of Mission to apply for a History of Equal Rights grant from the National Park Service.
“That would have been up to $750,000, three quarters of a million dollars. That goes specifically towards restoration projects on sites that have historical significance for minorities,” Ozuna said.
“It’s for places like the Roosevelt that made a contribution to the struggle for equal rights in this country. You know, this was a school building for the Mexican Americans in the community at a time when they weren't allowed to go to the same schools as Anglos. And so it's my belief that it would have been a strong contender for this federal grant.”
Mission community leader Ester Salinas said those that care about history in Mission have learned a lot of lessons from the “tragedy” that befell Roosevelt Auditorium. She said one was not to trust the word of city and school board leaders. Salinas went to school at Roosevelt Elementary. She said the demolition reminded her of the battle her late father, professional baseball player Bernardo Peña, fought in the 1960s to save the famous Mission 30-30 Baseball Park. “There has always been discrimination against and neglect towards anything on the south side of the railroad tracks,” Salinas said.
Ozuna said another lesson learned is that the City of Mission’s preservation ordinances need to be completely overhauled. If the ordinances had worked as intended, Ozuna said, the City of Mission could have prevented Mission CISD from demolishing the auditorium. He said other historical buildings in Mission are not protected by the City’s preservation ordinances.
“I think that the city officials are open to working with us to make sure that (an overhaul of the preservation ordinances) happens. We've gotten good feedback from the city attorney and from others, so we're going to hope that while this is a tragedy, that lessons will have been learned. And, that this will be a rallying point moving forward so that this never happens again.”
Editor's Note: Here is an audio interview with preservation expert Gabriel Ozuna about lessons learned from the demolition of Roosevelt Auditorium:
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