San Antonio Conservation Society

Deep in the heart of Texas, on the Westside of San Antonio, sits an unassuming one-story Art Moderne building in the heart of a busy commercial district.

Inside, though, something special has been happening since the late 1940's. Lerma's Nite Club, a conjunto music venue, has been in continuous operation at 1612 N. Zarzamora for well over sixty years. Lerma's is the heart of conjunto music, a very unique Texan fusion of German and Czech accordion music and the Mexican ranchera played by migrating farmworkers on the farms and ranches of Texas. The Texican migrant workers of Mexican descent traveled from crop to crop in communities with strong German and Czech influences, where they would entertain their fellow friends and family with music. The polka sounds caught their attention and they soon began adopting the use of the accordion with their own native bajo sexto that evolved in Mexico. Conjunto music is truly a Texas-born American folk music.

Sadly, due to city building code violations at an adjacent tenant space, the beloved building has been closed since July 2010 and is in need of major structural repairs. A group of community members has banded together and formed the SAVE LERMAâ'S Coalition. The group and owners of the building are currently in the planning stages of a capital improvements fundraising campaign with the help of community supporters and various organizations along with outreach and education.  Because of the many musicians that have performed there and the part it has played in the community’s collective history, this icon of conjunto music heritage has been recognized by the City of San Antonio as a historic landmark for its cultural significance. As the longest-running live-music conjunto venue in Central and South Texas it has hosted many talented musicians, including Eva Ybarra, Henry Zimmerle, Bene Medina, Santiago Jimenez, National Medal of Arts recipient Lydia Mendoza, Valerio Longoria and the late Esteban Jordan, along with numerous members of the Conjunto Hall of Fame and the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame. Lerma's is a rare historic example of a night club devoted solely to this popular music form in San Antonio, and has been nominated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. 

For people who love to dance, conjunto music runs the gamut of dance styles; polkas, waltzes, schottizes, redobas, doble paso (two-step), boleros, mambo, huapango, cumbia and mazurka. Lerma's Nite Club has been home to many happy-to-dance couples, and on a Saturday or Sunday night, it was common to see couples that first met there years ago continuing to dance the night away. Now, SAVE LERMA'S is working to make sure those couples can dance there once again. The Lerma's Nite Club building is a site worthy of preservation because “This Place Matters.â€

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