A Historic El Paso, Texas Venue is in Danger of Disappearing

El Paso, Texas is full of history, but sadly not everything lasts forever. We've had many buildings & monuments torn down in the past (or in the process of being torn down like the boxing mural on the DeSoto Hotel). Recently there have been 9 Texas locations marked as "endangered"; one of which is the El Paso County Coliseum.

Why is the El Paso County Coliseum endangered?

On Preservation Texas's Most Endangered Places list for 2023, the El Paso County Coliseum was put on there because of El Paso's plans on a possible expansion project attached to the International Bridge of Americas. This story was further looked into by KFOX 14.

The 8 other Texas locations include:

• The St. John Freedom Colony in Dale, Texas
• Deleon Depot in Deleon, Texas
• The Tournalaid Homes in Longview, Texas
• The Courtney & St. Holland's Schools in Navasota, Texas
• The Carolina Gilbert Hinchee House in Beaumont, Texas
• The Moses Hughes Mill, New Hope Baptist Church, the Colored School, and St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church in Lampasas, Texas
• and The Amarillo Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Amarillo, Texas.
• The Roosevelt School Auditorium in Mission, Texas was also on the list but sadly destruction began in June of 2023.

Now... I don't think I NEED to say it but... I do not want to Coliseum to be torn down. It has been a HUGE part of El Paso's history since it opened on May 21, 1942. While its history started off as a concentration camp, it quickly changed that to being a home for many local sporting events & concerts; the first being Grand Funk Railroad in 1970.

Since then, many artists include The Grateful Dead, Iron Maiden, Metallica, At The Drive-In, Incubus, Fleetwood Mac, Alice Cooper...even the king, Elvis Presley has performed at the Coliseum. That's just a small fraction of artists that make up a HUGE list.

I really hope the city does the right thing and we DON'T tear it down... we need to preserve the Coliseum and Texas history.

Take a look at some of the other Texas locations marked as endangered in 2023:

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