Everitt Building
Edinburg, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the earliest commercial ventures in Edinburg, this building was completed in 1910 by John Closner (1853-1932), a founder of the townsite. Its first tenant was the Rev. W. O. Miller, who operated a hardware and machinery store. During World War I, it was used as a Red Cross workshop. In 1920 the property was acquired by E. M. Everitt, who used the building primarily as a grocery store. Among the building's numerous other tenants were the Masonic Lodge and the Golden Jersey Creamery. An Edinburg landmark, the structure stands as part of the city's early economic history. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Completed in 1910 by townsite founder John Closner, the Everitt Building was among Edinburg's earliest commercial structures. Over the years it sheltered a hardware store, a World War I Red Cross workshop, the Golden Jersey Creamery, a Masonic lodge, and E. M. Everitt's grocery. It stands as a survivor of the young city's economic beginnings.
Why it matters
It captures the town-building boom that transformed the Rio Grande Valley in the early 20th century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Closner
- · E. M. Everitt
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
El Sal del Rey, C.S.A.
Edinburg, TX
This large natural salt lake northeast of Edinburg was South Texas's principal source of salt during the Civil War, placed under state guard in 1862 and sold to families, the Confederate army, and traders on the vital "cotton road" through Mexico. Salt was indispensable to the wartime South—for curing meat under the meat tithe, tending cavalry horses, and tanning leather for shoes and harness—so Union forces repeatedly wrecked the works from 1863 until war's end. The lake also figured in the long legal fight over Texas mineral ownership, settled toward private landowners in the constitutions of 1866 and after.
W. L. Lipscomb
Edinburg, TX
William Lawton Lipscomb came to Texas as a boy around 1880 and by 1894 had settled in the Rio Grande Valley's Hidalgo County, first managing a sugar plantation and later opening one of Edinburg's earliest general stores. In 1910 he moved his mercantile business into this newly finished building, running it while serving sixteen years as a county commissioner. His career captures the commercial coming-of-age of the lower Valley in the early twentieth century, as railroads and irrigation turned ranch country into towns.
Southern Pacific Depot
Edinburg, TX
Opened in 1927 as the Southern Pacific pushed its rails deep into South Texas, this Edinburg depot became a lifeline for the Rio Grande Valley's booming citrus and vegetable trade. Designed by railroad architect Leonard B. McCoy in graceful Spanish Colonial Revival style — tile detailing, double entries, built-in benches — it carried passengers until 1952 and freight until 1982. The building marks the moment the Valley connected to the wider national economy.
Kiwanis Club of Pharr
Pharr, TX
Built in 1928, this Mission-style building was the first meeting hall in all of Kiwanis International to be owned by a local club—raised just a year after the Pharr chapter was chartered. Doubling as a community center, it hosted civic gatherings and even sheltered the local Chamber of Commerce.