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78R13332 JH-F
By: Moreno of El Paso H.R. No. 1112
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, Constructed in 1930, the Plaza Theatre in El Paso is
an exceptional example of an atmospheric movie palace in the United
States; and
WHEREAS, Embodying the distinctive, illusion-producing
characteristics of movie theater architecture during the 1930s, the
theater meets the criteria of Nationally Significant established by
the National Register of Historic Places; and
WHEREAS, Located in a major metropolitan center on the United
States-Mexico border and articulated in a Spanish colonial revival
style, the Plaza Theatre also embodies the unique binational,
bicultural, and bilingual identity of the borderlands region of the
Southwest; and
WHEREAS, Constructed at the apex of a period of tremendous
economic and population growth in the Southwest, the theater is
associated with broad patterns in the history of this part of the
country, specifically the development of El Paso as an important
commercial and cultural center for the region and the blending of
Anglo and Hispanic peoples and cultures that has characterized the
borderlands region over the history of its settlement; and
WHEREAS, Among the many distinctions touted on opening night,
September 12, 1930, the Plaza was the largest movie theater west of
Dallas, it had the first refrigerated drinking water system in a
public building in the United States, it was one of only six
theaters in the Southwest to feature a Brenograph, a machine that
could project stationary or moving color effects onto the screen or
across the proscenium, it was the first to employ a telecheck
system, an in-house communication system linking the box office to
the ushers at various levels in the auditorium, and its organ, a
Balaban III, was one of only six produced by the Wurlitzer Company
and is one of only two that still exist today; and
WHEREAS, The significance of the Plaza Theatre is its
outstanding architectural value as an intact atmospheric movie
palace, combined inextricably with its direct association with the
events of a key period of development in the Southwestern region of
the United States; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 78th Texas
Legislature hereby recognize the Plaza Theatre in El Paso as a
treasure of Texas history within the context of movie theater
architecture and development in the United States.