Luckenbach: Luckenbach Dance Hall

People standing in front of building with sign saying U.S. Post Office, Luckenbach, Texas, 1850-1971

Luckenbach (TXDOT)

Illustration of people dancing in a hall to the music of men playing a fiddle and a guitar with a bar and sign saying St. Louis Beer

Illustration from “The Great South”, 1875, titled “Men drunk and sober danced to rude music” (UTSA Special Collections)

Large group of people seated for a photo in front of a building called Dancing Pavilion about 1910

Dancing pavilion in Minerals wells, ca 1910. (Boyce Ditto Public Library)

Painting of people dancing in a room with a wooden floor with a guitar and fiddle player titled “Cowboy Dance” by Jeanne Magafan, 1941. Created for the post office in Anson, Texas

Magafan, Jeanne. Cowboy Dance, 1941. New Deal era mural located in the Anson, Texas post office.

Groups of people seated at outdoor picnic tables listening to a group of men playing guitars and mandolins in front of an old, unpainted wood frame building

Barbecue and music (Library of Congress)

Three men playing guitars with a tip jar and CDs on a bench in front of them and a sign saying Luckenbach, Population 3

Jam session in Luckenbach (Library of Congress)

Luckenbach took its name from one of the earliest German-Texan families, but it was August Engel who opened the first post office and general store in the 1880s. The town grew from there. Luckenbach Dance Hall was the town’s cultural center for decades for the German-Texans who lived there. Today, the hall is one of Texas’s best known performance and dance halls, drawing thousands annually from around the state and country.

Luckenbach Dance Hall

SITE MAP
PREVIOUS
SITES
NEXT