|
 La Lomita Historic District - Mission, Texas Posted by:  JimmyEv
N 26° 09.470 W 098° 19.872
14R E 566843 N 2893335
Quick Description: This simple, austere chapel was built by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1899 to serve near-by ranch workers. It’s one of the most peaceful and evocative places in the Valley.
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 5/10/2008 9:55:29 AM
Waymark Code: WM3RB1
Views: 123
Long Description:
| Two buildings on 122 acres of ranch
land comprise the La Lomita Historic District. The two buildings
are the lovely La Lomita Chapel, at these coordinates, and St.
Peter’s Novitiate, further down the road on a small, 25-foot hill,
dubbed La Lomita, or ‘little hill.’ The ranch lands once
belonged to the Oblate Fathers. |
 |
Five priests from the Catholic Order
of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate landed at Point Isabel in 1849,
intent upon building churches and missions and re-establishing the
Catholic church in the Valley. They built a church, the
Immaculate
Conception Church, in Brownsville, and worked their way up the
Rio Grande River, building a church in Roma, near the western
terminus of navigation on the Rio.
The land of La Lomita, sitting on two Spanish porciones
almost midway between Brownsville and Roma, was acquired by Rene
Guyard, a devout Catholic, before 1849. Guyard built a ranch here,
naming it ‘La Lomita’ for the little hill. Guyard requested that
the Oblates build a chapel on his ranch, to minister to the
families living on La Lomita lands. |
| With its strategic location as a rest
stop for travel between Brownsville and Roma, the Oblates obliged,
building an adobe chapel in 1865. When Guyard died in 1871, he
willed his ranch to the Oblates. The original La Lomita Chapel
washed away in a flood, but was rebuilt of stuccoed stone in 1899.
A small village, also named La Lomita, developed around the
chapel. |
| In 1904, tracks for the Sam Fordyce
Spur of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican Railroad were laid
about four miles away; that spelled doom for the town of La Lomita.
When a townsite was laid-out along the tracks in 1908, most of the
residents of La Lomita moved. The new town was named ‘Mission’ in
honor of the La Lomita Mission; its main boulevard, leading
directly to the La Lomita Mission, was also named in its honor,
Lomita Boulevard, only to be changed to ‘Conway Boulevard’ a few
decades later.
Two years after the founding of Mission, in 1910, the Oblates
built Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in the new town, and virtually
abandoned the La Lomita Mission. Over the years, hurricanes
destroyed the abandoned town buildings surrounding the chapel. In
1949, the 100th anniversary of the coming of the Oblate Fathers
from France, the chapel was literally ‘dug out of the brush’ and
restored.
Now the chapel sits quietly behind the levee, in a forested
grove a few hundred yards from the Rio, open to the public and
still used occasionally for mass while waiting to be permanently
separated from Mission by the border wall going up on the levee.
Most of the interior, except the altar, is original to its 1899
construction. Once the wall is in place, you’ll probably need a
passport to visit this little nugget of American history. |
 |
Sources:
Texas Historical Commission, "La Lomita Historic
District"
Available at Texas
Historical Atlas
Handbook of Texas Online, "Oblates of Mary
Immaculate"
Available at
Handbook of Texas Online
Street address:
FM 1016, South of Mission
Mission, TX USA
County / Borough / Parish: Hidalgo County
Year listed: 1975
Historic significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Period of significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924
Historic function: Church Related Residence, Educational Related Housing, Religious Structure
Current function: Church School, Educational Related Housing, Religious Structure
Hours of operation: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM
[U.S.] National Register of Historic Places URL: [Web Link]
Privately owned?: Not Listed
Season start / Season finish: Not listed
Website (secondary): Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
To log a waymark in this category, please provide a photograph that
shows you (or your GPS receiver, if you're waymarking solo) and the
place.
|
