Lockhart Welcome Center moving toward Fall opening
By City of Lockhart
Staff
Plans for the Lockhart Welcome Center are beginning to move from design toward construction as the City of Lockhart begins to solicit bids for the first phase of improvements at 109 East San Antonio Street. The City plans to open the first phase of the Lockhart Welcome Center in Fall 2026, according to Downtown and Tourism Director Tiffany Hutchinson-Padilla. “The Lockhart Welcome Center is intended to be much more than a place to pick up a brochure,” Padilla said. “It will give visitors a friendly starting point for discovering everything that makes Lockhart worth exploring.”
The new location will be on the historic downtown square in the former home of the Southwest Museum of Clocks and Watches. The Lockhart Welcome Center will provide information about the city’s restaurants, shops, galleries, events, music, culture, culinary experiences, film connections, history and local attractions. It will also help visitors look beyond the destination that first brought them to Lockhart. “Someone may come to Lockhart with one stop in mind, but we want to help them discover a business, event or experience they may not have known about,” Padilla said. “That creates a better experience for the visitor while also supporting our local businesses and encouraging people to spend more time in the community.”
Over the past several months, the city has worked with HDR Architecture to develop plans for the new Center. The planning process has explored the building’s layout, visitor services, displays, furnishings, finishes and signage, along with ways to protect and highlight the character of the historic building. The concepts developed for the Center focus on three purposes. The first is helping visitors discover Lockhart’s history and culture, secondly, creating a welcoming place for connection and finally providing practical information that helps people explore the community.
The goal is to create an experience that is engaging and accessible for visitors of all ages, whether they are exploring Lockhart on their own, with friends or as part of a multi-generational family.
“We want the Lockhart Welcome Center to be inviting and visually interesting, but it also has to be useful,” Padilla said. “Visitors should be able to walk in, speak with someone who is familiar with Lockhart, find helpful information and leave excited about what they can experience next.”
The project is being completed in phases so the city can begin welcoming visitors while continuing to develop future exhibits, murals, interactive displays and other features. Phase One will include the improvements necessary to prepare the Lockhart Welcome Center for its initial opening this fall. The upcoming bid will also include Phase Two enabling work. This work will address improvements that can be completed now to make future construction and additions more efficient. “This approach allows us to open the Lockhart Welcome Center sooner while still being thoughtful about how the facility can grow over time,” Padilla said.
That future will also be shaped through collaboration. Lockhart’s newly appointed Tourism Advisory Board is preparing to hold its first meeting and will receive an update on the Lockhart Welcome Center, including the conceptual plans for its continued development. The board was created to bring a creative and strategic perspective to Lockhart’s tourism priorities and visitor experience. Its members represent different areas of the community and will contribute a variety of experiences and viewpoints as the City’s tourism program takes shape. “The Lockhart Welcome Center should be a collaborative project,” Padilla said. “The Tourism Advisory Board gives us an opportunity to listen and consider the Lockhart experience from the perspectives of our visitors, businesses and community.”
Padilla said the fall opening should be viewed as the beginning of the Lockhart Welcome Center’s story, rather than the unveiling of a space that will never change. “A successful welcome center should evolve along with the community it represents,” she said. “As Lockhart’s tourism program grows, the Lockhart Welcome Center can grow with it by adding new stories, resources and experiences that reflect what is happening throughout the city.”
The Lockhart Welcome Center is one part of a larger City effort to improve the visitor experience and build a coordinated municipal tourism program. Together with the development of a destination brand, a new tourism website and future improvements to visitor information and wayfinding, it will help visitors explore Lockhart, navigate the community and connect with more of the local businesses, attractions and experiences that give the city its personality. Just as importantly, these efforts should reflect what residents know and love about Lockhart and create something the community can be proud of. This is not simply a story we are telling visitors. This is our story. “Lockhart already gives people plenty of reasons to visit,” Padilla said. “The Lockhart Welcome Center will help us make sure they receive a warm welcome when they arrive, along with a few more reasons to stay a little longer.” The city expects to share additional updates once the bidding process is complete and work begins inside the Lockhart Welcome Center.
