Texas Venue Directory
Martinez Social Club
Historic social club and dance hall · San Antonio
Historic San Antonio-area social club continuing community dances and private-event use.
About this room
The hall was built in 1912 in Martinez, a rail-stop community southeast of San Antonio established roughly thirty-five years earlier. It went up for polka dancing and later added bowling, and it is still a membership club with public dances on Wednesdays and Sundays and rentals the rest of the week. The original oak floor is the thing people come for. There is a nine-pin bowling alley attached at the back where the pins are still set by hand. The Czech Heritage Society holds an annual event here.
History sources checked August 29, 2026.
Things you may not know
- The pins are set by hand. The nine-pin alley behind the dance hall employs human pinsetters. Source
- It has air conditioning, which is unusual. Most surviving Texas halls do not, because of the age of the buildings, and being climate-controlled is a named reason regulars give for coming. Source
- The club runs on about two hundred members who all know each other. Source
- The floor is over a century old and the house rule enforces it: no food or drink on the dance floor. Source
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