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 Old Garza House
N 27° 18.504 W 098° 40.342
14R E 532416 N 3020636
The historic marker for the Garza House, built by Don Bonifacio Garza, an early pioneer, located at 602 E Santa Clara Street in downtown Hebbronville TX
Waymark Code: WMPFCE
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/22/2015
Views: 8
This historic early pioneer home was built by Don Bonifacio Garza in 1893. It has recently been restored and now sports a new (as of 2015) state historic marker, which says it was erected here in 1962, but whose text does not match the 1962 text in the Atlas.
The 1962 original marker text is as follows:
"OLD GARZA HOME
Don Bonifacio Garza built (1893) and owned this dwelling (with adobe and grass roof) and distributed water from here in a two-wheel cart drawn by mule, whose customary greetings was poetry. Home of several pioneer families until 1960, then the house for 20 years of school teacher Miss Emilia Davila of the only private Spanish school in south Jim Hogg County. (1962)"
See below for the marker text as it appears in 2015, under the name "OLD GARZA HOUSE".
Marker Number: 6052
Marker Text:
Don Bonifacio Garza traveled extensively in the late 1800s along the historic oxcart road from San Diego to Pena station (1 Mi. E), then to Rio Grande city, Roma, and Mier. He traded and sold American and Mexican goods and carried news to American Tejano ranches of Spanish and Mexican land grant ancestry.
In 1893, Garza built this house, which was also Hebbronville's post office for a few years. Don Bonifacio distributed water and sold bloques de sillar (limestone blocks) in mule-drawn carts. His poetic greetings were legendary. The house is also known as Casa de Quatras Aguas,” (Caidas), or “House of Four Waterfalls” for its steeply pitched roof.
In 1898, Don Bonifacio Garza sold the house to José Angel Garza (no relation), Hebbronville pioneer and entrepreneur. The house is sited within the original townsite of Hebbronville platted in 1894. This is been home to several descendents of Spanish pioneer families. The house also provided sanctuary for nuns exiled during the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s, as well as nuns displaced during Mexico's Cristero War of the 1920s. The home often housed professors of El Colegio Altamirando (1898-1958), a nearby Spanish-language school for grades one through six; Profesora Emilia Davila was the last occupant.
The two-story modified rectangular plan dwelling features a rare Austrian-style gable-on-hip roof with dormers. Thick limestone blocks combined with the collegium stucco exterior to help regulate the interior temperature or year-round. Earlier thatch and wooden shingle roofs caught fire at least five times before metal roof was installed. Today the oldest house in Hebron fill is a model of craftsmanship and a powerful connection intertwined in Tejano history and Texas’ Western past.
Recorded Texas historic landmark – 1962
Marker is property of the state of Texas
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Visit Instructions:
Please include a picture in your log. You and your GPS receiver do not need to be in the picture. We encourage additional information about your visit (comments about the surrounding area, how you ended up near the marker, etc.) in the log.
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