Our Lady of Peace Parish Hall
Alpine, Brewster County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site of the oldest church building in Alpine, originally called Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, completed in 1892 and in continuous use as a church until 1942, and as a parish hall until 1964. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Completed in 1892 as Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, this is the oldest church building in the far West Texas town of Alpine. It served its congregation continuously as a place of worship until 1942 and then as a parish hall into the 1960s. Its survival marks the early religious life of a remote Big Bend–country settlement.
Why it matters
The building stands as a rare relic of frontier faith and community in one of the most isolated corners of nineteenth-century Texas.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Garcia-Valadez House
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Ranch hand Trinidad Garcia built this Alpine house in 1890, its original four rooms walled in adobe up to 33 inches thick, and for years it served as a neighborhood social center. Since 1926 it has been the home of merchant Thomas Valadez and his family, who expanded it to eight rooms. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1968.
Ritchey Hotel, 1886
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Built in 1886 of frame and adobe, the Ritchey Hotel rose beside the cattle-loading pens of the Southern Pacific Railway in the vast, remote Big Bend country. Here cowhands and ranchers who had driven stock in from scattered ranches could find a bed, a drink, and company while waiting to ship their cattle east by rail. It captures the moment when the railroad transformed West Texas ranching from an isolated frontier trade into part of a national market.
Gage-Van Sickle House
Alpine, TX
Raised in 1866 in what would become Alpine, this house is one of the oldest survivors in the vast, sparsely settled Big Bend country of far West Texas. It passed through a series of early owners—among them the Gage and Van Sickle families whose names it now carries—men who staked their futures on this remote and rugged frontier.
Brewster County Courthouse
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Erected in 1887 as vast Brewster County was carved out of the Big Bend country of far West Texas, this courthouse anchored civic life in the frontier town of Alpine. It served the neighboring Buchel and Foley counties too, until those areas were folded into Brewster. Generations later, the courthouse square remains the gathering place for community events.