Weslaco's ground-level water storage reservoir was constructed in 1928, nine years after the city was founded, through the efforts of Mayor David E. Kirgan and City Water Commissioner William Detlef, and it became a symbol of Kirgan's municipal reforms. The facility remained in use until 1938, when work began on the adjacent overhead tank, a Works Progress Administration project completed in 1941 during the mayoralty of John L. Compere, Jr. Later adapted as a theater in 1969 by City Manager Cecil E. Massey, the site became the home of Mid Valley Civic Theatre, founded in Weslaco in 1969, whose first performance was held on April 2, 1970, and it serves as a reminder of Weslaco's early development as a progressive city.