Alderete-Candelaria House
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Although the exact building date for this adobe masonry structure is unknown, it appears to have been constructed during the 1870s for Benigno Alderete (1845-1916). Born in Ysleta (now part of El Paso), Alderete served at various times as a Texas Ranger, county commissioner, and town mayor. The residence became known as the Candelaria House after Alderete's granddaughter Ester married Alex Candelaria, whose family also had been leaders in early El Paso County history. The large "L" shaped house and courtyard originally shared the property with a corral, irrigation ditch, and agricultural field. Built with the help of the neighboring Tigua Indians, the house exhibits many examples of their construction techniques. While Alderete's descendants continued to live in parts of the structure until 1969, other parts have been used for a variety of purposes. The house served as an outbuilding for the nearby mission, as a temporary courthouse, gristmill, school, dance hall, puppet show theatre, movie house, and county office building. The style and usage of the Alderete-Candelaria House attest to the blending of Spanish, Indian, and American influences in the area. This cultural mix is an important part of El Paso County history. (1984)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Likely raised in the 1870s for Benigno Alderete—a Ysleta-born Texas Ranger, county commissioner, and mayor—this L-shaped adobe house was built with the help of the neighboring Tigua Indians, whose construction techniques are visible throughout. Later known as the Candelaria House through marriage, it served over the decades as a courthouse, gristmill, school, dance hall, movie house, and county office. Its very fabric blends Spanish, Indigenous, and American ways of building and living.
Why it matters
The house embodies the cultural fusion at the heart of El Paso's history, where Spanish, Tigua, Mexican, and American influences met and mingled on the far western frontier.
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Related people
- · Benigno Alderete
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of First Mission in Texas
Ysleta, TX
Founded around 1681 at Ysleta, this Spanish mission is among the oldest in what became the United States, established generations before the famous missions of California. It grew alongside the Tigua (Tiwa) people who helped the Franciscan padres build it and who have maintained their presence and traditions there for centuries. Rebuilt and restored over time, it remains an active church at the heart of Ysleta, often called Texas's oldest community.
Oldest Mission in Texas
Ysleta, TX
This mission was first founded in 1613 at Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico and dedicated as San Antonio de Isleta. During the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, Tigua Indians carried their patron saint south alongside fleeing Spaniards and re-established the mission near El Paso in 1682. Renamed several times over the centuries, its present chapel still holds walls and bells from a 1744 building — and it continues to minister to the Tigua people.
Corpus Christi de la Ysleta
Ysleta, TX
Established in 1682, Corpus Christi de la Ysleta is remembered as the first mission and pueblo in Texas, founded by Spanish governor Antonio de Otermín and Franciscan Fray Francisco Ayeta. It was built for the Tigua people—Pueblo refugees who had fled south during the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680—and maintained by Franciscan missionaries in the decades that followed.
San Antonio de Senecu
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