aging infrastructure and outdated systems<\/a> inside the nearly 50-year-old building that, according to the Elizondos, put Dallas on the map.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe Dallas City Council still hasn\u2019t voted on leaving the building but rejected a repair plan for the facility in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For 81-year-old Juan Merced Elizondo and his brother, 72-year-old Sergio Manuel Elizondo, City Hall represents hundreds of hours of labor and sacrifices that brought their family from Mexico to Dallas. The building transformed the city from a regional town into an international destination.<\/p>\n
Their grandnephew, filmmaker Merced Elizondo, is preparing to release a movie shot inside the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy family helped build it and I might be the last filmmaker to capture its beauty,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Merced]()
<\/p>\n
Merced Elizondo poses for a portrait at the Dallas Morning News studio, on Wednesday, July 29, 2026 in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
\u2018We went through so much\u2019<\/p>\n
Developers and city leaders have said removing City Hall unlocks prime real estate that could save downtown. Merced Elizondo, 31, was surprised when he first heard the city was considering leaving the building.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSurely people who are way smarter than us will know better,\u201d he said during a July conversation with his great uncles about the building.<\/p>\n
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Juan Merced Elizondo arrived in Dallas in 1963, just two weeks before President John F. Kennedy\u2019s assassination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTanto que sufrimos para hacerlo.\u201d \u201cWe went through so much to get it done,\u201d he\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Dallas]()
<\/p>\n
Dallas City Hall under construction in 1974.<\/p>\n
1974 FIle Photo\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Francisco, his older brother, arrived first. Then Juan followed. Eventually, all six\u00a0Elizondo brothers were working construction across North Texas.<\/p>\n
The youngest, Sergio, was only 15.<\/p>\n
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The city wasn\u2019t welcoming at first. Juan remembers when he would have to go to a private corner for \u201cBlacks and Hispanics only\u201d in restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But all that changed after Kennedy\u2019s assassination. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. And city leaders threw themselves into civic efforts to undo Dallas\u2019 identity as a \u201ccity of hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Hall opened to the public in 1978 after nearly a decade of planning and two years of construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEra un avance aqu\u00ed para Dallas, para dar m\u00e1s a conocer esta ciudad.\u201d \u201cIt was a step forward for Dallas, to raise the city\u2019s profile,\u201d Juan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Elizondos helped build pieces of modern Dallas over the next four decades. Parkland Hospital. The Reunion Tower parking garage. Downtown office towers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Barren land<\/p>\n
Building City Hall was different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The brothers spent about a year building the concrete forms that would support the massive structure. The Lee Roy Westbrook construction company had about 20 workers assigned to that portion of the project.<\/p>\n
When they started, 1500 Marilla St. was just rocks and barren land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Construction]()
<\/p>\n
Construction site of I. M. Pei’s City Hall. Shot June 1, 1974 – Construction continues on Dallas City Hall. 1974×1974 ORG XMIT: DMN1006171144356215<\/p>\n
LEE LANGUM – staff photographer\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
The brothers recalled working long hours in a time before hydraulic lifts and modern equipment. Everything was carried by hand. There was no shade. No cooling stations.<\/p>\n
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The clock on the Mercantile building across the street served as the daily reminder of lunch time. Their packed tacos were sometimes cold when they dug in because there was no place to heat their food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The brothers remember details hidden beneath today\u2019s City Hall that few Dallas residents know exist. While excavating the foundation, groundwater seeped through the limestone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They also built a tunnel beneath the structure. Engineers told them it was intended for a future streetcar.<\/p>\n
It never came. The tunnel was buried beneath the building.<\/p>\n
City Hall\u2019s future\u00a0<\/p>\n
After spending decades in construction, the brothers understand that buildings age. That\u2019s just the wheel of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They said the city needed to take care of City Hall before it was too late, to take advantage of the new construction technology to avoid being in this pivotal moment for Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Modern waterproofing systems simply didn\u2019t exist when City Hall was built. Could it be repaired? Maybe, they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their grandnephew was a little less understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To him, there\u2019s never been a better time to be in Dallas. He has seen the arts grow, bubble and blossom. He has experienced New York City and worked in Los Angeles. But Dallas was a place to watch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like anytime Dallas is close to establishing a culture, we rip it out because of corporate interests,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He filmed \u201cAnd Then Everything Turned Itself Inside Out\u201d at City Hall. It\u2019s a story of an imagined future where people\u2019s birthmarks are investigated by social services to probe their past whereabouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A]()
<\/p>\n
A still from Merced Elizondo’s \u201cAnd Then Everything Turned Itself Inside Out\u201d. The film is expected to have its world premiere in 2027.<\/p>\n
Merced Elizondo![\"A]()
<\/p>\n
A still from Merced Elizondo’s \u201cAnd Then Everything Turned Itself Inside Out\u201d. The film is expected to have its world premiere in 2027.<\/p>\n
Merced Elizondo<\/p>\n
Elizondo was selected for the Latino Film Institute fellowship, which is supported by Netflix. His movie \u2014 starring Ra\u00fal Castillo, Julio C\u00e9sar Cedillo and Moira Kelly \u2014 is expected to have its world premiere next year.<\/p>\n
He worries City Hall will be demolished but hopes the city will keep the building alive as a museum or a school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, there\u2019s a lot of millionaires, there\u2019s a lot of billionaires in Dallas,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why we can\u2019t either scrape some kind of money together to fix it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His great uncles understand that the decision may ultimately come down to dollars. They also understand that cities change. After all, they helped build much of the one Dallas residents know today.<\/p>\n
\u201cSi van a hacer algo ah\u00ed, que hagan algo bueno, que sea reconocido mundialmente.\u201d \u201cIf they\u2019re going to do something there, at least it should be something good\u00a0\u2014 something that will be recognized worldwide,\u201d Juan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left, Merced Elizondo poses with his grandfather\u2019s brothers Juan Merced Elizondo, 81, and Sergio Manuel Elizondo, 72,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-413803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}