Buddy Holly Center

The Buddy Holly Center sits at 1801 Crickets Avenue in Lubbock, Texas, housed in the renovated Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway Depot — a handsome 1950s building in the city's cultural district. The museum opened in 1999 and holds the most significant collection of Buddy Holly artefacts anywhere in the world.

The permanent Buddy Holly Gallery displays personal items and memorabilia spanning his short life and career: his Fender Stratocaster guitar, stage clothing, photographs, recording contracts, handwritten lyrics, tour itineraries, and — most famously — his trademark horn-rimmed glasses. An oversized sculpture of the glasses was installed outside the main entrance in 2002 and has become one of Lubbock's most recognisable landmarks.

The center also houses the Texas Musicians Hall of Fame, honouring artists from across the state, and the Lubbock Fine Arts Gallery alongside three rotating exhibition spaces. In 2013, the restored childhood home of Crickets drummer Jerry Allison was relocated to the site and opened to the public, adding another layer to the story of the band that changed popular music.

Holly's influence is difficult to overstate. The Beatles took their name as a nod to the Crickets. The Rolling Stones' first single was a cover of "Not Fade Away." Bob Dylan saw Holly perform in Duluth, Minnesota, three days before the crash and later said the concert changed his life. The standard rock band lineup — two guitars, bass, drums — was essentially Holly's invention.

The Buddy Holly Center is open Tuesday to Saturday, with a small admission fee. It sits on Crickets Avenue — a street renamed in honour of the band — in Lubbock's growing cultural district, within walking distance of a large bronze statue of Holly that stands in the nearby Meadows Park.