City of Pharr
Pharr, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
For many centuries, nomadic Coahuiltecans lived in the Lower Rio Grande area. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers came through the region, and the Spanish government began to colonize both sides of the river by the late 1700s. At the close of the U.S.-Mexico War in 1848, the Rio Grande was established as the official boundary. In 1909, John C. Kelly, Henry N. Pharr, W.E. Cage and R.C. Briggs formed the Pharr Townsite Company, platting and registering the new town. Kelly donated lots in the original plat for early churches, including the Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal and Presbyterian denominations. Pharr schools began in 1911, and the community later joined with San Juan and Alamo to create the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District. The city founders were also involved with the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Co., organized in 1910 to furnish irrigation and domestic water to 40,000 acres in the Pharr area by means of a Rio Grande pumping plant. The water system led the economy to shift from ranching to crop production, and the railroad, which came through the area in 1905, made it possible to ship produce around the country. The city of Pharr was incorporated in 1916. Given its location at the intersection of two major developing highways and the growth of commercial transportation, Pharr became known as the "Hub City of the Valley." Agricultural shipping and packing businesses were mainstays in the city economy. With the continued growth of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Pharr remains a vital business center, and an international bridge now provides an important commercial link to Mexico. (2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The land around Pharr passed from the nomadic Coahuiltecans to Spanish colonization in the late 1700s, becoming Texas soil when the Rio Grande was fixed as the boundary in 1848. In 1909 the Pharr Townsite Company platted the town, whose founders donated church lots and organized irrigation that shifted the economy from ranching to citrus and produce farming. Served by the railroad and two major highways, Pharr incorporated in 1916 and grew into the self-styled "Hub City of the Valley."
Why it matters
Pharr's rise shows how irrigation, rail, and highways transformed the Lower Rio Grande Valley from ranchland into an agricultural shipping powerhouse in the early twentieth century.
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Related people
- · John C. Kelly
- · Henry N. Pharr
- · W.E. Cage
- · R.C. Briggs
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
San Juan Townsite
San Juan, TX
The town of San Juan sprang up in 1910 when Rio Grande Valley entrepreneur John Closner sold 406 acres to a townsite company that named the new community for him. Sitting on the rail line, San Juan quickly grew a business district along Fifth Street, and in 1911 raised its first two-story building—home to the San Juan State Bank and, over the decades, an irrigation office and other ventures. Today the surviving fragment of that pioneer building houses the city library.
Sam and Marjorie Miller House
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Built in 1917, this home belonged to John H. Shary, the developer whose irrigation schemes and marketing turned the Lower Rio Grande Valley into a citrus empire in the early 20th century. Shary championed the region's canals and schools, and his family kept the house at the center of Valley life for decades. In 1953 his daughter and son-in-law, Governor Allan Shivers, hosted President Dwight D. Eisenhower here during the dedication of nearby Falcon Dam.
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