an estimated 1,000 dance halls that sprung up around texas in the 1800s , knitting together german , czech , polish and other immigrant communities .
from about 1870 into the 1920s , european immigrants in texas built hundreds of these halls .
they largely served as meeting places for agricultural groups , rifle clubs and mutual benefit societies .
about 400 such halls still stand -- many unused and decaying .
only two traditional texas dance halls continue to operate on nearly a daily basis : luckenbach hall and gruene hall .
texas dance hall preservation and other groups are working to preserve the state 's remaining dance halls .
they are creating an inventory so that the most distinctive ones become candidates for the national register of historic places .