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by David Moreno, Arlington Report
May 13, 2026<\/p>\n
Arlington Music Hall is getting a small modern upgrade to its exterior signage, but owners emphasize the historic venue\u2019s marquee will remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The downtown venue\u2019s letter board below the iconic \u201cArlington\u201d marquee is being switched with digital screen panels to allow for more shows to be promoted and create a safer work environment for employees, executive director Cary Moon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The letter board currently allows for less than three shows to be promoted at a time and venue employees have to climb a step ladder with a pole to change it daily, Moon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you often have five shows a week, it\u2019s a challenge to update the marquee in a timely and safe manner,\u201d he said. \u201cOur goal is to continue to make the little Arlington Music Hall do big things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Construction crews began removing the board over the weekend and are expected to finish adding panels in the coming days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moon, a former Fort Worth council member, said the update is a testament to \u201cthe enhancements\u201d he and fellow property owners have made to the music hall over the past decade. His group, Center Street Complex LLC, purchased the historic venue in 2015<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arlington Music Hall opened in 1950 as a movie theater<\/a> before its evolution into a live music space with more than 700 seats. From the mid-1990s to the early 2010s, the venue was home to Johnnie High\u2019s Country Music Revue<\/a>. The weekly variety show spotlighted local artists, including country music star LeAnn Rimes.<\/p>\n Owners invested over $300,000 in the past two years to update the building \u2014 repainting the exterior, updating sound and light systems and changing the board \u2014 Moon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe artists that we bring here are unmatched for a venue of its size and we got to be able to maintain and always enhance that production value and make ourselves efficient,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Modern upgrades to the marquee have been met with mixed reviews from some Arlington residents. A post earlier this week about the sign change<\/a> from the \u201cArlington Locals\u201d Facebook group has been flooded with more than 269 comments as of May 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some residents believed the change erases the venue\u2019s history. Others praised the digital screens for its ability to spotlight more touring acts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moon said he has seen the mixed reception online and understands the sentiments. The goal remains to move the building into the future, but continue to embrace its historical significance, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Geraldine Mills, Arlington Historical Society<\/a> executive director, said she doesn\u2019t think the new screens detract from the facade of the building. She joked that she\u2019s interested in keeping some of the removed letters for the society\u2019s archives.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe marquee is still there,\u201d Mills said. \u201cPeople will come to accept it. When you look at it you\u2019re still going to see the Arlington theater.\u201d<\/p>\n David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or <\/em>@davidmreports<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The Fort Worth Report\u2019s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/05\/13\/arlington-music-halls-historic-marquee-gets-small-modern-upgrade-with-new-digital-screens\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Arlington Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=547685&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/05\/13\/arlington-music-halls-historic-marquee-gets-small-modern-upgrade-with-new-digital-screens\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p><\/div>\n