Skaggs House
Weslaco, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Prominent Weslaco bankers and citrus farmers C. Lester (1896-1966) and Florence Richardson Skaggs (1884-1983) bought 15 acres here in 1924. This Spanish Colonial Revival style residence, built in 1927, was designed for the Skaggses by prolific Weslaco architect R. Newell Waters. It features an off-center entry and metal casement windows. The house remained in the Skaggs family until 1992. The house, native vegetation, and adjoining orchard provide a glimpse of Welaco's emerging prosperity in the late 1920s. This site became the subject of conservation and preservation efforts in the early 1990s. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1920s the Rio Grande Valley was booming as irrigation turned raw brushland into profitable citrus groves, and Weslaco rose almost overnight as a planned railroad town. Bankers and citrus growers C. Lester and Florence Richardson Skaggs bought fifteen acres here in 1924 and, in 1927, had prolific local architect R. Newell Waters design them a Spanish Colonial Revival home amid their orchard. The house, its native landscape, and adjoining grove survived in the family until 1992 and became an early preservation cause.
Why it matters
The home is a tangible record of the citrus-and-banking prosperity that transformed the Lower Rio Grande Valley from frontier into farm empire in the early twentieth century.
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Related people
- · C. Lester Skaggs
- · Florence Richardson Skaggs
- · R. Newell Waters
Themes & tags
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