L. E. Snavely House
Harlingen, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This land was a dense chaparral of mesquite and ebony trees when it was bought by Levi Elmer (1869-1939) and Lenna Edmondson (1872-1938) Snavely in 1919. They had moved to Harlingen from Oklahoma in 1909 to grow citrus and market the fruit under the label "La Bonita." In 1928, architect Birger A. Elwing designed for them this picturesque, Norman Style house, which they called La Bonita. The hollow-tile structure is faced with brick and accented with occasional rough boulders. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Levi and Lenna Snavely bought this Rio Grande Valley land in 1919 it was dense chaparral of mesquite and ebony. Having come to Harlingen from Oklahoma a decade earlier to grow citrus and market their fruit under the "La Bonita" label, the couple commissioned architect Birger A. Elwing to design this picturesque Norman-style, hollow-tile home, completed in 1928 and named for their brand.
Why it matters
The house reflects the citrus boom that transformed the brushlands of the lower Rio Grande Valley into productive orchards in the early twentieth century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early twentieth century, the lower Rio Grande Valley was in the middle of a dramatic transformation. When the railroad reached the region in the early 1900s, new towns grew up along the line, and land that had long been ranch country and thick brush was cleared for irrigated farming.
Harlingen was one of those new towns. Developers and settlers, many from the Midwest and neighboring states, came south convinced that the Valley's warm climate and irrigation water could make it a garden. Citrus was one of the great hopes, and orchards began replacing the native thornscrub.
By the 1920s, that optimism had created real prosperity for some families. It was also a decade of lively home building across the country, when revival styles borrowed from European cottages and manor houses became popular with successful homeowners. This house sits right at the meeting point of those two trends.
People & events
Levi Elmer Snavely and Lenna Edmondson Snavely moved to Harlingen from Oklahoma in 1909, early in the town's life, to grow citrus. They marketed their fruit under a label they called La Bonita, meaning the pretty one in Spanish, a small but telling sign of how growers were learning to sell the Valley's produce to distant buyers.
In 1919 they bought this land, which was then dense chaparral of mesquite and ebony. Clearing brush like that by hand and machine was hard, slow work, and it is easy to forget how much labor sat behind every orderly row of trees in the Valley.
Nearly a decade later, in 1928, they hired architect Birger A. Elwing to design a picturesque Norman-style home, and they gave it the same name as their fruit: La Bonita. The house is built of hollow tile, faced with brick and accented with occasional rough boulders. Levi lived until 1939 and Lenna until 1938, so the couple enjoyed their home for about a decade.
Its place in the American story
The Snavely House captures a classic American pattern: families moving to a new region, remaking the land, and building a business around a crop. In the Rio Grande Valley, citrus helped turn brushland into one of the country's notable fruit-growing regions, part of a broader story of irrigation reshaping the American South and West.
It also reflects the rise of branding in agriculture. Growers learned that a name and a label could help their fruit stand out in faraway markets. Naming their house after their brand suggests how closely the Snavelys' identity was tied to their business.
Architecturally, the house is a regional expression of a national fashion. Period revival styles, including Norman-inspired designs with their storybook, cottage-like feel, were popular across 1920s America. Seeing one rise in the subtropical Valley shows how national tastes traveled wherever new wealth appeared.
If you visit
Look for the picturesque Norman-style features that make the house stand out: its storybook character, brick facing, and the rough boulders set here and there into the walls. Those stones give the house an intentionally rustic, Old World texture.
This is a historic residence, so enjoy it from the street unless you know it is open to the public. As you look, picture the land around it in 1919 as a tangle of mesquite and ebony, and imagine the effort it took to turn it into orchards.
Harlingen makes an easy stop on a Rio Grande Valley road trip. Keep an eye out for the region's citrus heritage as you travel, and consider how many Valley towns grew from the same mix of railroad, irrigation, and newcomers with big plans.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Levi Elmer Snavely
- · Lenna Edmondson Snavely
- · Birger A. Elwing
Themes & tags
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