Buddy Holly Center facts for kids
Buddy Holly Center sign
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| Established | September 3, 1999 |
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| Location | Lubbock, Texas |
| Type | Music museum and art gallery |
| Key holdings | Buddy Holly's Fender Stratocaster and horn-rimmed glasses |
The Buddy Holly Center is a cool place in Lubbock, Texas. It celebrates the life and music of Buddy Holly, a famous rock and roll pioneer. It also showcases the music and art from Lubbock and the wider West Texas area.
The building itself has a long history. It started as a train station in 1928. In 1996, the City of Lubbock got many items that belonged to Buddy Holly. The next year, they bought the old train station. In 1999, the new Buddy Holly Center opened. It became the home for Buddy Holly's collection and a new art center for the city.
The Center has a special area just for Buddy Holly's collection. Here you can see things from his childhood and his music career. It also features the Texas Musician Hall of Fame and other art galleries. In 2002, a giant sculpture of Buddy Holly's famous horn-rimmed glasses was placed outside. In 2013, the house of Jerry Allison, the drummer for Buddy Holly's band The Crickets, was moved to the site and opened to visitors.
Contents
History of the Center
The Building's Journey
The building where the Buddy Holly Center is located has a rich past. It first opened in 1928 as a train station for the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway. It was designed in a beautiful Spanish Renaissance Revival style. This station was the biggest on the railway line between Lubbock and Estelline, Texas.
It served as a train station until 1953. After that, it was used for storage. In 1976, the building got a new life as "The Depot Restaurant." This was one of the first times an old building in Lubbock was successfully reused for something new. In 1979, it became the first building to be named a Lubbock Historic Landmark. It was also added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The restaurant closed in 1997, and the city bought the building that same year.
Creating the Center
Before the Buddy Holly Center, Lubbock had a Fine Arts Center since 1984. But that building was old and not really made for a museum. In 1996, the city received a large collection of items from Buddy Holly's family. These items were very important to his legacy.
The next year, the city bought the recently closed Depot Restaurant. They began to fix it up and add new parts. The goal was to create a new home for the Buddy Holly collection. It would also replace the old Fine Arts Center. The original train station part was restored to look just like it did in 1928. The new addition was built to match the old style. It even has a cool design with steel shapes that look like Holly's famous Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.
The new Buddy Holly Center opened its doors on September 3, 1999. This was just a few days before Buddy Holly's birthday. It was designed to be a place for both performances and visual arts. It celebrates Buddy Holly and the music of West Texas.
The Center's main attractions include the Buddy Holly collection, which is shaped like a guitar. There's also the Texas Musician Hall of Fame, which often has special exhibits about West Texas musicians. You can also visit the Lubbock Fine Arts Gallery and three other galleries that show different traveling art exhibits.
In May 2002, a huge sculpture of Holly's unique horn-rimmed glasses was placed near the main entrance. It was made by an artist named Steve Teeters. In 2010, a part of the Center was updated. They replaced doors and windows, fixed the outside bricks, and added new floors and lighting inside. They also made a new space for educational programs.
Crickets drummer Jerry Allison's house was moved to the Center's site. It opened to the public on September 7, 2013. This house is special because Allison and Holly wrote many of their songs there. You can take tours of the house today.
Amazing Collection
The Buddy Holly Center has an incredible collection of items that belonged to Buddy Holly. The City of Lubbock got these items in 1996. The most famous pieces are the Fender Stratocaster guitar he played at his last concert and the pair of glasses he was wearing when he passed away.
The collection also includes many other things from his music career. You can see his recording microphone, clothes he wore on stage, and a guitar strap he decorated himself. There are also many of his albums.
Beyond music items, the collection has lots of photos, both professional and personal. You can also see documents like postcards, fan mail, his original tour plans, and business cards. There's even a letter written by Holly himself and other letters with Decca Records.
Items from Holly's childhood are also on display. These include his homework assignments, a slingshot, a leather-crafting kit, and his own collection of 45-rpm records.
The Center also has Buddy Holly's 1958 Ariel Cyclone motorcycle. It's on loan from a Lubbock resident named George McMahan. After Holly's death, famous country musicians Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter owned the motorcycle before it was sold.
Fun Exhibits and Events
The Buddy Holly Center often hosts special temporary exhibits. These have included art shows featuring underwater photography and watercolors from children's literature.
In October 2014, Paul McCartney from the Beatles played a concert at the Center. He talked about how Buddy Holly's music inspired the Beatles. The Center also has an annual Summer Showcase Concert Series. These are free concerts held in its Meadows Courtyard from May to August. You can hear bands playing all kinds of music, like rock, rhythm and blues, funk, soul, country, metal, and mariachi. In August 2015, Latin roots rock musician Patricia Vonne performed there.
The Buddy Holly Center offers free admission on February 3. This day is known as "The Day the Music Died." It's the day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson died in a plane crash. On this day, the Center also offers free trolley tours to different places in Lubbock connected to Buddy Holly. The Center has also offered free admission for other events, like the City of Lubbock's First Friday Art Trail and its own 15th anniversary in September 2014.
The Center also hosts many other community events. These include workshops on wire drawings and a Music, Art and Drama Camp for kids aged 8 to 12. They also have various Day of the Dead events, like art galleries, family art workshops, and concerts by Tejano bands.
See also
- List of music museums
