{"nrhp_refnum":"07000337","name":"McAllen Ranch","other_names":["Rancho San Juanito","Santa Anita"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"FM 1017, 13 mi. W of TX 281","address_restricted":false,"city":"Linn","county":"Hidalgo County","state":"TX","lat":26.641651714000062,"lon":-98.24391368622113,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-04-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Prehistoric","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Architecture","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A working commercial cattle ranch district of about 32,537 acres near Linn, Hidalgo County, Texas, centered on a ranch headquarters with a main house built in 1905, employee housing, barns, wells and archaeological sites. It descends from a Spanish colonial land grant first occupied in 1790.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the ranch is significant for exploration and settlement and agriculture (Criterion A), for its architecture (Criterion C), and for archaeological deposits (Criterion D). It has remained in one family since 1790, and remnants of Spanish colonial wells and markers survive alongside early twentieth-century ranch buildings.","narrative":"McAllen Ranch, also called Rancho San Juanito, is a working cattle ranch of roughly 32,500 acres northwest of Edinburg in the Rio Grande Valley. Its origins lie in a Spanish colonial grant: Manuel Gómez occupied the Santa Anita lands in 1790, dug wells and built houses for workers, and received the grant formally in 1799. The land later passed through the Ballí and McAllen families, and the western half, San Juanito, was partitioned off in 1898. The headquarters includes a center-passage main house built in 1905 by Martin Hansen of Brownsville for James Ballí McAllen, a board-and-batten guest house with a wine cellar, a commissary, employee houses, stables and barns. Beyond the compound are windmills, wells, corrals, boundary marker stones and four archaeological sites. The property was listed for its settlement and agricultural history, its architecture and its archaeological potential, and for remaining in one family's hands for more than two centuries.","period_of_significance":"1790 - 1956","architect_builder":"Martin Hansen, 1904 (of approximately 5 of the buildings)","architectural_style":"Center passage house (listed as OTHER=center passage)","criteria":["A","C","D"],"status_note":"Still a working cattle ranch; the main house was restored after 1998 and is in continuous occupation, and employee houses remain occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.361773-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/64/9725/40972564/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/07000337.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972564","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109999834"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/hidalgo-county/mcallen-ranch-07000337/"}