A Message from Rebecca Bridges Rice, Board President
Dear Members of the Art Association,
It has been three months since my tenure as President of the Board started. And what a whirlwind it has been.
As we prepare to begin construction on our new 22,000-plus square-foot facilities and 1.2-acre campus in downtown Rockport, our former home, the historic Kline’s Cafe Building is ready to begin the journey to its new location.
With deep historic ties to the Rockport community, Kline’s served as our home from December 2017 to December 2019. In preparation for the move, we prepared a detailed relocation plan that was approved by the Texas Historical Commission. The relocation is a joint effort between the Art Center and its eventual owner, Upside Ventures LLC, of Austin, Texas. The 1940s-era Kline’s will begin its move this Wednesday, March 31 around 9 a.m. from its current location on South Austin St. The building will move west on North St. and then south on Magnolia to be positioned on a new foundation located at 504 S. Magnolia Street. The four-block journey is expected to take two days.
Ram House Movers of Sinton, Texas, will be moving the one-story, 2,000-square-foot building — a slab-on-grade foundation, masonry, cinder block, stucco walls and a wood frame roof — a total weight of 220 tons. Ram House Movers has worked on significant projects in Texas, most notably relocating the History Center for Aransas County to its present location on Cedar Ave., as well as moving the Stillman House from Corpus Christi to its present location in Brownsville.
Upside Ventures LLC, who owns and manages commercial interests in Austin and Rockport, plans improvements for Kline’s, including ADA accessibility, and beautification of the site through landscaping that once adorned the building at its Austin St. location. Once it is set on its new concrete foundation, the building will meet FEMA elevation requirements.
Last year, we retained an architectural historian at Amaterra, LLC in Dallas to prepare historical documentation regarding the 70-plus-year-old structure. Kline’s is considered significant under Criterion C, architecture, as a good example of Art Moderne at the local level of significance. The documentation can be found at RockportArtCenter.com.
Once moved, our construction can begin in earnest. It is slated for completion June 2022.
Regards,
Rebecca Bridges Rice