Prep Begins for New $4.3 Million Visitor Center on the Bluff

Workers at Kreische Brewery and Monument Hill State Historic Sites were setting up a temporary visitors center this week. The Sites will move their offices into the temporary structure to make way for construction of a new visitors center.

Monument Hill Assistant Site Manager Gavin Miculka said the Texas Legislature approved $4.3 million in 2023 for a new visitors center and restroom facilities.

“We’ve selected a firm to lead the design, but where and what it will look like is still to be determined,” he said.

The old A-frame visitors center opened in February 1966. Miculka said the old building suffers from plumbing and electrical problems. He said the Historic Sites also need a larger space.

“We need better facilities for office space and programming,” he said. “Some indoor programming spaces will be a goal. Whether it’s raining, cold or 105 degrees outside, we need a space for activities indoors.”

Miculka said the site staff will meet with an architecture firm in the next month for preliminary studies.

“It’ll probably be six months or more before the plans are ready,” Miculka said.

Miculka said the new visitors center will hopefully include more space for artifacts. He said the mural at the current restroom facility will be preserved.