Texas Historical Marker #16579
Hunter Gymnasium. In 1940, Marfa received a Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant of more than $15,000 to help build a new gymnasium named to honor athletic director Boren Hunter. The modified rectangular plan building features plastered adobe infill walls, a rare earthen material in buildings of this type. Other elements include concrete for pilasters and a continuous perimeter footing, and steel for open web roof trusses. A projecting entry steps down to the athletic court. The facility has been used for numerous school and community activities, figuring prominently into the lives of generations of students and citizens. #16579
?, Marfa, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #16572
Blackwell School. EDUCATION FOR LOCAL CHILDREN OF MEXICAN DESCENT DATES FROM 1889, WHEN THE FORMER METHODIST CHURCH BECAME A SCHOOLHOUSE. THE SCHOOL, NAMED FOR LONGTIME PRINCIPAL JESSE BLACKWELL, SERVED HUNDREDS OF HISPANIC CHILDREN UP TO NINTH GRADE. STUDENTS WERE TOLD TO SPEAK ONLY ENGLISH ON CAMPUS; SPANISH WORDS WRITTEN ON SLIPS OF PAPER WERE BURIED ON THE GROUNDS IN A MOCK FUNERAL CEREMONY. THE SCHOOL CLOSED IN 1965 WITH INTEGRATION OF MARFA SCHOOLS. THE BUILDING SAT VACANT UNTIL PRESERVATION EFFORTS BY THE BLACKWELL SCHOOL ALLIANCE, FORMED IN 2006. THE ONE-STORY SCHOOLHOUSE HAS A MODIFIED HIP ROOF, FRONT-GABLED ENTRY, AND PLASTERED 24-INCH THICK ADOBE WALLS ON A STONE FOUNDATION. #16572
501 South Abbot St., Marfa, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #12622
William Edward Russell. Kentucky native William Edward Russell (1839-1890) came to Texas in the 1850s and worked his way to the Big Bend region, where he traded along the Chihuahua Trail and had a store at the Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River. Russell became a prominent landowner, rancher, merchant, farmer and silver miner in the Presidio County/Northern Mexico region. He acquired property along the Old River Road between Candelaria and Presidio and founded the settlement of Ruidoso, where he constructed irrigation ditches and set up a mill. He held several county political offices, including commissioner and sheriff. He and his wife, Marla Tomasita Rodriguez, had seven children, four of whom lived past young childhood. (2002) #12622
?, Marfa, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #07095
Site of Alamito. Alamito Creek has been a passageway and the scene of human activity since prehistoric times. Spanish explorers began traveling through the region in 1535. Mexican families began to settle in the area about 1715 and established rancheros despite an Apache presence. Beginning in the 1850s, the infamous Chihuahua Trail, a route for heavy freight wagons from San Antonio to Chihuahua, Mexico, passed near Alamito. By 1870 Alamito was a community with several families farming and working on nearby ranches. John Davis, a pioneer from North Carolina, was a strong community leader. He married Francisca Herrera, the daughter of Carlos Herrera, one of the first Spanish settlers of Alamito, in 1875. They built a home with a chapel, one-room school, and a canal for crop irrigation. Davis was known for serving peach brandy to weary travelers who came through on the Chihuahua Trail. Francisca died in 1892 and was buried near the chapel in Alamito. The grief-stricken Davis went back to North Carolina and never returned to this area. The legendary railroad known as the "Road to Topolabampo" was the result of a longtime dream of A. E. Stilwell, railroad builder and urban promoter, for a rail line from Kansas City to Mexico's west coast. It passed through Alamito in 1930. The Railroad dug a deep well, constructed a tank to water the steam engines, built a section house for workers, and renamed the site Plata. At the end of the 20th century, only ruins of the Davis-Herrera home, school, cemetery and canal remain. Ruts of the Chihuahua Trail can still be seen in the bedrock north of Alamito. (2000) #7095
?, Marfa, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #03209
Marfa Stockyards. Built in 1920 by the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway company, the Marfa stockyards provided a central shipping point for livestock raised in Presidio, Jeff Davis, and Brewster counties. As many as 70,000 head of cattle were shipped from these pens in a single year. The facilities were enlarged in 1929 to handle the great volume of business. By the 1930s sheep and goats were also being shipped from here. Although business declined after the introduction of trucking to the area, the stockyards are still used to weigh animals prior to shipment. (1988) #3209
?, Marfa, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #02597
Humphris-Humphreys House. This was the home of rancher, merchant and community leader John Humphris and his wife Mary. Built in 1883 by local builder Saturnino Naborette, the house represents traditional building methods of early pioneer days in west Texas, with a central hallway with four rooms on either side. The house was purchased in 1915 by schoolteacher Sally Humphreys, wife of rancher Joe Humphreys, who ran a boardinghouse here until 1937. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1996 #2597
110 W. San Antonio St., Marfa, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #00008
Presidio - Oldest Town in America. At confluence of Concho and Rio Grande Rivers. A settlement for over 10,000 years. Site of first recorded wagon train crossing into Texas, December [year illegible], headed by Antonio de Espejo. Marker placed jointly by Texas Society, Children of the American Revolution, Texas Society, Daughters of the American Colonists. (1961) #8
US 67 E of Marfa, Marfa, TX, United States