As Rockport Center for the Arts (RCA) prepares to begin construction on its new 22,000-plus-square-foot facilities and 1.18-acre campus in downtown Rockport, RCA’s former home, the historic Kline’s Cafe Building (KCB), is ready to begin the journey to its new location.
With deep historic ties to the Rockport community, the KCB most recently served as the home for RCA from December 2017 to December 2019. In preparation for the move, RCA prepared a detailed relocation plan that was approved by the Texas Historical Commission. A joint effort between RCA and its eventual owner, Upside Ventures LLC, of Austin, Texas, the 1940s-era KCB will begin its move March 31 around 9 a.m. from its current location at 106 S. Austin St. The building will move west on North St. and then south on Magnolia to be positioned on the 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 the KCB, including ADA accessibility, and beautification of the site through landscaping that once adorned the KCB at its Austin St. location. Once it is set on its new concrete foundation, the KCB will also meet FEMA elevation requirements.
In 2020, RCA retained an architectural historian at Amaterra LLC to prepare historical documentation regarding the 70-plus-year-old structure. Kline’s Cafe 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.
To coordinate coverage, contact Luis Purón, RCA Executive Director
(570) 702-4032 / luis@rockportartcenter.com
Video credit: Ty Husak & Aransas County Historical Society