The Commission of Control for Texas Centennial Celebrations (better known as the Texas Centennial Commission) was the state body created in 1935 by the
Texas Legislature to organize Texas's 1936 centennial, marking 100 years of independence from
Mexico. In 1936 the commission allocated funds for a museum facility on the Sul Ross State University campus. The
Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided additional funding to cover the $75,000 cost. Sul Ross industrial arts professor Victor J. Smith, a self-trained architect, designed the building and supervised construction. The WPA provided the labor force to build the project. Former Governor
Pat Morris Neff dedicated the museum on May 1, 1937. By 1966 the West Texas Historical and Scientific Society, the original steward of the museum, was inactive. The museum closed and the collections passed to Sul Ross. The museum building became the university student center. The university housed the collections in a former bowling alley and then in Lawrence Hall, an academic building on campus. A new student center opened in 2000, and the original museum building was abandoned. In 2003 a successful $3.3 million capital campaign funded the renovation of the building, and the university dedicated the new Museum of the Big Bend on August 15, 2007. An $11 million, 10,000 square foot expansion opened on June 23, 2023. Miriam McCoy, whose family owns
McCoy's Building Supply, donated $5 million for the project. University of Texas School of Architecture professor Larry Speck, also a principal in the architecture firm Page Southerland Page, designed the modern new
weathering steel building that sits close to the original building, and is connected by an enclosed walkway. It is named the Emmett and Miriam McCoy Building. The building has a events center that can be configured for 300 people standing or 80 people seated. ==Collection==