Weslaco
Weslaco, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located on part of a Spanish land grant known as Llano Grande, Weslaco was founded in 1919 by a partnership composed of R. C., Dan, and Ed Couch and Robert L. Reeves. The city's name is take from the initials of the W. E. Stewart Land Co., which held title to the site from 1917 to 1919. Weslaco had a post office by 1920 and was incorporated in 1921. Founded nearly ten years after most other valley cities in the area, Weslaco depends on a wide variety of businesses for its economic base. Descendants of some of the early settlers still live here. (1985)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Weslaco sits on part of the old Spanish land grant called Llano Grande, but the town itself is a twentieth-century creation, founded in 1919 by the Couch brothers and Robert L. Reeves. Its unusual name comes from the initials of the W. E. Stewart Land Company, which held the site as the Rio Grande Valley's land-and-irrigation boom drew developers south. Incorporated in 1921 and settled nearly a decade after its neighbors, Weslaco built a diversified economy that still counts descendants of its first families among its residents.
Why it matters
Weslaco's origin captures the developer-driven settlement of the lower Rio Grande Valley, when land companies and irrigation transformed ranchland into a string of new farm towns.
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Related people
- · Robert L. Reeves
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Weslaco City Hall
Weslaco, TX
By 1928 Weslaco had outgrown the frame community building that first stood on this spot, and civic leaders replaced it with a proper city hall in the Spanish Colonial style then favored across the Rio Grande Valley. Architect R. Newell Waters dressed it in cast-stone sculpture at the entry and cupola and colorful Spanish tile along the interior stairway. Town founder Ed Couch and Mayor David Kirgan presided over its completion.
Cortez Hotel
Weslaco, TX
Weslaco was barely a decade old when city leaders hired San Antonio architect Paul G. Silber to raise a hotel on a block once deeded as a park. Opening on the last night of 1928, the four-story Spanish Colonial Revival Cortez Hotel became the social heart of the Rio Grande Valley boomtown—home to dance clubs, service organizations, graduations, and political rallies alike. Through decades of changing ownership it remained a symbol of the civic pride that built the Valley.
Weslaco Water Tower
Weslaco, TX
Built in 1928, nine years after Weslaco was founded, this ground-level reservoir was a centerpiece of Mayor David Kirgan's push for modern municipal services in the young Rio Grande Valley town. It served the city until 1938, when work began on an adjacent overhead tank — a Works Progress Administration project finished in 1941. Together the structures mark Weslaco's early drive to build itself into a progressive, well-run city.
Weslaco City Cemetery
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Weslaco, named for the W.E. Stewart Land Company, was founded in December 1919 as land developers opened the Rio Grande Valley to new settlers. The city laid out this cemetery in 1921 just beyond the original townsite, and its first burial came that same year. Among those interred are city founders Edmond Cooper Couch and Robert Lee Reeves, and the grounds — now holding more than 6,000 graves — are dotted with markers noting military service and fraternal ties.