In 1919 the citizens of San Antonio voted on a bond election for the funding of city projects including a convention center building to meet the needs of its time, today we know it as the Municipal Auditorium. However, by the beginning of the 1960’s the auditorium had become small and antiquated as organizations were now looking for larger and more modern facilities in which to host their conventions. The dream of HemisFair was to revitalize and modernize the alamo city, so with this in mind city leaders drew up plans to build a new convention center complex to meet the growing needs of the city. The final plans called for a three building complex featuring a 200,000 sq ft convention hall, 2,300 seat performing arts theater and 10,500 seat sports style arena. The primary source of funding came from a city bond election which unanimously passed on January 28,1964.

The crown jewel of the new complex was a 1/4 mile extension of the San Antonio River into the complex.

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Below are images and construction avdertisements for the convention center complex.