Silver anniversary memories
Rise of the Wortham Theater Center: How it all began
Jun 2, 2012 | 4:30 pm
Photo by Jia Li
In the 1980s, everyone agreed that Houston needs a new performing arts center. Even a recession couldn't stop the Wortham Center from rising in downtown Houston.
Action was slow in coming, but in December 1977, the Cullen Foundation [https: /www.cullenfdn.org/] granted $45,000 to the newly formed Houston Lyric Theater Foundation, headed by arts philanthropist Harris Masterson, to fund a cost study and preliminary designs for a new opera/ballet theater. Where LTF had a $40-million budget in mind, initial cost estimates ran as high as $120 million, but finally settled at $75 million. ------- The Wortham started as a big hole in the ground at the corner of Texas and Smith streets in downtown Houston.