Levelland and the Wallace Theater were recently featured in Texas Highways Magazine’s July/August 2024 Edition. Click here to read the full article.
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Tienda’s Tortilla Factory has been making house-made chorizo and flour tortillas since 1976
The Wallace Theater in Levelland had been a movie hub for the residents of Hockley County for some 50 years. But due to the advent of multiplexes in my hometown of Lubbock, 30 miles east, most residents lost touch with the theater—and it showed.
As recently as 2002, only the “W,” “A,” and “L” of the original sign were left. The stage was rotted out. There were holes in the ceiling, water leaks, and a few uninvited guests. That’s when George Keeling—who is credited with coining the town slogan “Living in Levelland and lovin’ it!”—stepped in to buy the theater. Shuttered since the late 1980s, the local businessman was looking at a mountain of work, including trapping 300 pigeons that had long made the theater their home.
Last December, the new marquee was finally raised, and all of its 300 bulbs shone above Houston Street. Crews put up the new 42-foot-tall blade sign with 6-foot-wide letters cascading down the front. When its doors are fully opened to the public this December, town residents can expect theater performances, concerts, celebrity speakers, film showings, and educational opportunities for local students.
Lubbock and Cleveland-based architects are currently renovating the interior with luxurious carpeting, brass rails, and wood. They’re even restoring the site’s acanthus “scrolling mural” that dates back to the 1950s—a fixture that made Keeling fall in love with the space as a child.
“When you walk in, we want you to feel like you are stepping back in time to the 1920s,” says Alycyn Keeling, George’s daughter and the executive director of the Wallace. Outside, maroon tiles shine on the front facade, and the original terrazzo flooring is flecked with chips of green that, over time, have dulled in color. The overall effect resembles many of the pieces of artwork found across town.
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Just one of many mosaics seen around Levelland
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The extensive renovations on the Wallace Theater can be fully appreciated this December
Known as the “City of Mosaics,” Levelland offers more than 100 works of art consisting of small pieces of colored stone, tile, and glass. A grassroots project that began in 1968, the collection of mosaics detail various scenes of local history, industry, and nature—like artist Don Stroud’s inaugural entry, Wild Mustangs. Other examples can be found on handrails along the town square steps, such as one depiction of a flying saucer—commemorating a famous 1957 UFO event—that brings a colorful aesthetic to downtown Levelland.
On the second Thursday of every November, that same space is overtaken by chauffeurs in limousines and horse-drawn carriages during the annual Ladies Night Out event. A pre-holiday shopping extravaganza, “it started out as an event to thank customers with a few merchants, and then turned into a very large annual celebration,” says Tania Moody, the city’s Main Street manager. At the free event, women are escorted from shop to shop as doormen in top hats and white gloves welcome them inside for wine and margaritas.
Many of these high-traffic boutiques are recent additions to the town square, but visitors would be remiss if they didn’t also indulge in historic spots like Tienda’s Tortilla Factory. A local institution since 1976, the restaurant specializes in homemade chorizo, hot sauces, carne guisada, and crispy breaded chiles rellenos. At the heart of many of these dishes are soft flour tortillas forged on a baby blue conveying machine that current owner Angie Tienda’s father brought over from Mexico. Today, she’s the only surviving member of her family lineage, but she says she still feels their presence in every homemade ingredient. “If anywhere I feel closer to any of my family members, it ain’t at the cemetery,” she says. “It’s right here.”
Whether it’s the immaculately restored architectural detail of the Wallace Theater or Tienda’s hand-laid stone put down by Angie’s bricklayer uncles, every piece of Levelland comes together to form a stunning Panhandle mosaic. Step back and you can appreciate the big picture: a gathering place on the South Plains that might just usurp Lubbock as the Hub City.