For 84 years, staff at the Brauntex Theatre in downtown New Braunfels have climbed up to its marquee two or three times a day to swap out letters by hand, a routine that has led to worker injuries and raised concerns about falling letters. Now the historic Art Deco venue is replacing those manually changed panels with a digital display, preserving the marquee's original border while modernizing the sign face itself.
The change comes after a particularly alarming incident: a truck hit a tree limb while an employee worked on the marquee, and the limb landed where the worker had just been standing, according to MySA. Manual marquee changes can take hours, and the marquee's two sides mean staff repeat the process on each face. Face panels were replaced twice during Cheryl Fisher's tenure as executive director of the Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre, per the same report.
Fisher said the theater wants to keep historic elements as authentic as possible whenever possible, and stressed that the digital upgrade is not about erasing the building's character. “Innovation and renovation and restoration all have to live together,” she said, per a news release cited by MySA. She added that the theater must protect its irreplaceable character while making thoughtful changes to keep it thriving.
A Movie Palace Born During Wartime
The Brauntex opened as a movie house in January 1942, charging 30 cents admission and screening Birth of the Blues as its first film. It quickly became a key gathering spot for local residents watching World War II newsreels after the attack on Pearl Harbor, according to the theater's own history, as recounted by Brauntex Theatre. Designed in the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne style by Dallas architects Jack Corgan and William J. Moore and built by Edwin A. Hanz of Hanz Construction Co., the venue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 2008, per Wikipedia.
The building went through a major structural change in 1972, when its balcony was enclosed to create a second auditorium, the “Brauntex Mini,” allowing it to operate as a dual-screen movie house until movie operations closed in May 1998, according to Cinema Treasures. That closure could have been the end of the story, but a community-driven restoration followed, with local volunteers, including high school JROTC cadets and a group nicknamed the “Brauntex Sweatshop,” hand-sewing 600 seat covers ahead of its reopening in August 2000 as the Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre.
Safety, Cost and a Long-Planned Upgrade
The digital marquee is intended to improve worker safety by eliminating the need for staff to manually replace letters several times a day, and Fisher said the theater can streamline marquee changes without endangering staff or the public. The upgrade is also expected to reduce staff time, safety concerns and long-term maintenance costs, according to MySA's reporting. The digital display will also provide more flexibility to share performances, community events, memorials, celebrations and other important information, and the theater plans to use it to display a tribute to the late Dolly Parton.
The marquee project traces back further than this year. The Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre Association launched a long-term capital improvement initiative in 2015 called the Plan Forward Campaign, which slated digital marquee installation and ADA enhancements for its final phases, according to Community Impact. In June 2022, the City of New Braunfels and the New Braunfels Economic Development Corporation awarded a $1.2 million grant to the theater for facility and technology upgrades, funding drawn from local sales tax dollars dedicated to economic development and quality-of-life projects, per the City of New Braunfels.
Part of a Bigger Downtown Push
The Brauntex sits within a broader effort by city leaders to bolster New Braunfels' cultural core. City officials in May 2024 announced joint grant initiatives with the Texas Historical Commission to nominate the Downtown Historic District surrounding the Brauntex for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the city. And in May 2026, the city approved a 15-year arts blitz that designated existing venues like the Brauntex as anchor hubs for expanded regional programming.
The nonprofit theater association also owns and operates a 49-space public parking lot directly behind the building, charging a $5 flat fee to help support venue operations, according to a city parking study. As the digital marquee installation moves forward, Fisher's framing — that innovation, renovation and restoration must live together — captures the balancing act facing a theater that has survived wartime newsreels, a 1998 closure and a community rescue, and is now navigating its next modernization without losing the historic border that has framed its sign for more than eight decades.
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