{"nrhp_refnum":"11000135","name":"Lerma's Nite Club","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1602-1612 N Zarzamora","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Antonio","county":"Bexar County","state":"TX","lat":29.44605685600004,"lon":-98.52503016999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-03-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Hispanic"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A c. 1948 one-part commercial block at 1602-1612 N. Zarzamora on the west side of San Antonio, Texas, whose southernmost unit housed Lerma's Nite Club, a conjunto music venue. The building is a five-unit Art Moderne structure of stuccoed concrete masonry.","why_significant":"Lerma's operated at this location from the late 1940s through summer 2010 and is described as the longest-running live conjunto music venue in Central and South Texas. It is a rare example of a San Antonio night club devoted solely to conjunto, a working-class Tejano music tradition. It is nominated under Criterion A for Entertainment/Recreation and Hispanic Ethnic Heritage at the local level.","narrative":"Built around 1948 on San Antonio's historically Hispanic West Side, this five-unit commercial block on North Zarzamora Street is of stuccoed concrete masonry with rounded corners, octagonal storefront windows and a tiled wainscot. Its southern unit housed Lerma's Nite Club, which Pablo Lerma turned into an exclusively live conjunto music venue after taking over the lease of the earlier El Sombrero club. Conjunto, built around the accordion and bajo sexto, was the music of working-class Tejanos. Lerma's operated continuously until summer 2010 and is described as the longest-running live conjunto venue in Central and South Texas. Performers there included Eva Ybarra, Santiago Jimenez and Valerio Longoria. The building was listed for its role in entertainment and Hispanic heritage, with a period of significance of 1948 to 1961. Structural problems from clay soil movement and a decayed roof leave it vacant and at risk, though much historic fabric remains intact beneath later alterations.","period_of_significance":"1948-1961","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Modern Movement: Art Moderne","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Vacant and not in use; the structure is badly deteriorated, with a bowed roof in danger of collapse, cracked and out-of-plumb walls, and a threat of demolition by the city as an unsafe structure.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.90631-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/65/9712/40971265/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/11000135.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000135/6f7cf7d4e4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000135/6f7cf7d4e4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Renelibrary","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lernas_Night_Club_(1_of_1).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Renelibrary</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lernas_Night_Club_(1_of_1).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971265","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lerma%27s_Nite_Club","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110002713"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/bexar-county/lermas-nite-club-11000135/"}