{"nrhp_refnum":"75002165","name":"La Lomita Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"5 mi. S of Mission on FM 1016","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mission","county":"Hidalgo County","state":"TX","lat":26.15391071800005,"lon":-98.3280098634891,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-05-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Exploration/Settlement","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 122-acre historic district in the lower Rio Grande Valley near Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas, containing the 1899 La Lomita Chapel, St. Peter's Novitiate (1912), and surrounding former Oblate ranch lands.","why_significant":"The chapel, farmland and novitiate together show the growth of the Catholic church in the lower Rio Grande Valley and the role of the Oblate Fathers in settling the southern tip of Texas. The mission helped bring the first settlers to the area, and the town of Mission took its name from it. The district was nominated as a whole because the buildings' significance is tied to the land and its rural setting.","narrative":"La Lomita Historic District covers 122 acres near the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County, Texas, built around the only hill in the area, which gave the place its name, \"little hill.\" The district includes a small stuccoed stone chapel from 1899, which replaced an 1865 adobe chapel destroyed by floods, and the two-story brick St. Peter's Novitiate of 1912, designed with Mission style features. The land was part of a Spanish-era porcion that passed to the Oblate Fathers in 1871 under the will of Rene Guyard. The mission drew settlers, and when the railroad arrived in 1904 the village moved north and the new town took the name Mission. The novitiate trained student priests until the late 1950s. It was later leased for vocational training for people with mental disabilities, with new compatible buildings added nearby. The district was drawn to keep the chapel, novitiate and farmland together as one setting.","period_of_significance":"1899 and 1912","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mission Revival (St. Peter's Novitiate); simple stuccoed stone chapel","criteria":[],"status_note":"Chapel is open and used for worship and retreat, and the novitiate is leased for a mental health and mental retardation training center with a planned art museum; the form marks the property as occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.729332-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/9725/40972577/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/75002165.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002165/c15eafac86-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002165/c15eafac86-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Andres Gonzalez","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LomitaRight.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Andres Gonzalez</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LomitaRight.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972577","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106327862"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/hidalgo-county/la-lomita-historic-district-75002165/"}