Pitt House
Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
PITT HOUSE ARTHUR PITT OF ENGLAND ARRIVED IN GALVESTON, TEXAS IN 1909 WHERE HE FOUND WORK AT A CITRUS NURSERY. PITT MOVED TO THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY IN 1918 WHERE HE FOUNDED A CITRUS TREE BUSINESS THAT HE RAN FOR SIXTY YEARS. IN 1930, PITT AND HIS WIFE, EVELYN ROPER PITT, CONTRACTED E. GUY HOLLIDAY, AN ARCHITECT WHO HAD WORKED WITH TROST & TROST IN EL PASO, TO DESIGN A HOME FOR THE FAMILY. THE HOUSE FEATURES TRADITIONAL SPANISH REVIVAL ELEMENTS, SUCH AS AN ASYMMETRICAL FLOOR PLAN, LOW-PITCHED TILE ROOF, HALF-ROUND ARCHES, AND ORNATE TILE. IT ALSO INCLUDES EUROPEAN DESIGN ELEMENTS, SUCH AS CUSTOM-MADE TILE PATTERNS AND A PRE-CAST CONCRETE CROSS-PATTERN IN THE FOYER WINDOW THAT REFLECT PITT’S BRITISH HERITAGE.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
English immigrant Arthur Pitt arrived in Galveston in 1909, found work at a citrus nursery, and by 1918 had founded a Rio Grande Valley citrus-tree business he would run for sixty years. In 1930 he and his wife, Evelyn Roper Pitt, commissioned architect E. Guy Holliday—who had worked with El Paso's Trost & Trost—to design this Spanish Revival home, whose custom tilework and cross-patterned foyer window nodded to Pitt's British heritage.
Why it matters
Pitt's long career reflects the immigrant enterprise behind the Valley's citrus industry, an engine of its early-twentieth-century boom.
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Related people
- · Arthur Pitt
- · Evelyn Roper Pitt
- · E. Guy Holliday
Themes & tags
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