Bill Dupont, FAIA, a San Antonio Conservation Society-Endowed Professor is the director of the UTSA Center for Cultural Sustainability in the College of Architecture, Construction and Planning. He designs graduate coursework in historic preservation that has set its sights on the Twin Sisters Dance Hall for its class focus this fall.
Dupont’s class kicked off a semester of coursework at Twin Sisters Dance Hall Wednesday, Sept. 4. The class met with Twin Sisters board president Jo Nell Haas to begin their preliminary field investigation.
Haas answered an email from Deb Fleming, Texas Dance Hall Preservation executive director, asking if dance halls across the state wanted help from a University of Texas at San Antonio graduate architecture class. Hass said her answer to every question was, “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”
The class will continue field investigation research at Twin Sisters in the months ahead, including coming back at the end of the month for the Raise the Roof Cook-off and Festival. They will also visit other dance halls in the region including some that have shuttered.
Haas gave the students an overview of the known history of the hall, and had on display old photos, newspaper articles and artifacts including cedar shake shingles that were discovered under the old tin roof that was replaced two years ago.
One of the projects the students will undertake is dating the building.
“We know this hall is one of the oldest dance halls in the state,” Haas said. “Dating the building will be very interesting as we’re sure it’s been added onto through the years.”
She introduced the class to Arlan Bruemmer, whose great-grandfather gave the land for the dance hall in 1869.
Bruemmer, who was joined by his grandson Clay, provided students with history about the dance hall and the Twin Sisters area. He attended the one-room schoolhouse on RR 473 East for his first two years of school before the Twin Sisters school was consolidated into the Blanco school district. He will join a dozen classmates later this month for their annual reunion at the school.
“It was so great to have youth here,” Haas said. “Seeing the young people with Arlan Bruemmer and his grandson and having the older and younger generations working together on this project—that’s what it’s all about.”
The class will also design a new sign for the dance hall for placement at the gate entrance on U.S. Hwy. 281, work on estimates for replacement of the hall’s windows and gather history about the area for a timeline of the Twin Sisters’ community.
“Teaching students various aspects of historic preservation is the objective of this seminar,” Dupont said. “It’s left up to the instructor so select the topic, which gives us a little more latitude to set the topic of study for the semester.”
He selected dance halls after working on a feasibility study for the restoration of the currently closed Lerma’s Nite Club in San Antonio.
“Dance halls are such a part of Texas culture,” he said. “It’s special to the region. I’m not from the region; in New England there aren’t dance halls. Look how special and important they are to a community, and that’s an example of heritage. Let’s understand the historical importance of heritage and how it manifests into our built environment.”
“There’s a very narrow group of people who really know a lot about the dance halls,” Dupont said, “and there’s a lot of people who enjoy them, but there is very little academic study on dance halls.”
At the Center for Cultural Sustainability, research is undertaking on design, documentation and planning projects with a focus on the cultural heritage continuity of places, engaging faculty and students for the benefit of people and their communities. He established the Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation in 2009.
“We can’t save the bricks and stones without knowing the why – what is important to the people about a place,” he said. “Understand what is motivating people helps them be better consultants to their clients as architects.”
Dupont met Patrick Sparks in 2011, who recently stepped down from the Texas Dance Halls Preservation board of directors.
Later that evening, Sparks, who is also principal and found of Sparks Engineering in San Antonio, presented the students during a special screening of Erik McCowan’s documentary film “Dance Hall Days,” in which he, Haas and the Twin Sisters Dance Hall appear.
Sparks’ expertise in structural conservation led him to projects including the 18th century churches in the San Antonio Missions World Heritage Site and consultation for the Twin Sisters’ roof project.
