Located in downtown Santa Cruz do Sul, at 817 Ernesto Alves Street, alongside Siegfried Heuser Square, the Jornalista José Frantz Cultural Center is a tribute to the founder of the newspaper Gazeta do Sul. The cultural center is located in the impressive building of the Old Railway Station, a construction that dates back to 1905.

On this historic inauguration, the president of the province of Rio Grande do Sul, Augusto Borges de Medeiros, signed a decree that granted Santa Cruz the status of city, leaving behind its former status as a village.

After the railway between Rio Pardo and Santa Cruz was shut down in 1965, the station building was also left unused. Documents show that the station was abandoned for a while, at the risk of being demolished. The community came together aware of the importance of the location in the history of the city and claimed for the preservation of its memory. In 1978, the Municipal Council of Culture began a campaign to preserve the place.

Almost a decade later, the building was turned into a cultural center. The Old Station underwent restoration under the guidance of the current National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute; in 1996, the building was listed as cultural heritage by the city.

In 2015, a 40-ton locomotive was placed in the courtyard of the Old Station. It was donated by Ulbra Museum at the request of the mayor Telmo Kirst, helping to preserve the history of the trains in the city.

Currently, the municipal administration is responsible for the center, which is used for workshops and artistic exhibitions carried out by the Department of Culture.

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