{"nrhp_refnum":"86002618","name":"Silver Dollar Cafe","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1021 S. Mesa","address_restricted":false,"city":"El Paso","county":"El Paso County","state":"TX","lat":31.74959577100003,"lon":-106.48452602399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-08-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, L-plan brick complex at 1021 S. Mesa Street in El Paso, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border. It has fourteen two-room units, a corner grocery later turned cafe, and a walled courtyard. It was built around 1919 (the first draft gave 1922) by an unknown builder.","why_significant":"The revised nomination argues that the building was modest sanitary housing for Mexican immigrants in the Chihuahuita barrio. It reflects Progressive Era housing reform and the continued use of traditional Mexican courtyard and two-room plans. It also gained local notoriety in the 1920s-1940s as one of two remaining structures tied to El Paso's prostitution trade.","narrative":"Near the U.S.-Mexico border in south El Paso, the Silver Dollar Cafe is a single-story brick complex at 1021 S. Mesa Street. Its L-shaped plan holds fourteen two-room units, a corner grocery later converted to a cafe, and a courtyard enclosed by a six-foot stone wall with a two-unit outhouse. Built around 1919 by an unknown builder, it housed Mexican immigrants in the Chihuahuita barrio during a period of Progressive Era reform aimed at more sanitary housing. Its brick construction was modern, but the two-room units and courtyard followed older Mexican tenement practice. During the 1920s through 1944 the units were also used as rented cribs for prostitution, which gave the complex local notoriety. It is described as one of two surviving local structures linked to that trade. The building has seen few alterations and has been continuously occupied, and it is now being rehabilitated as apartments.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Unembellished vernacular; the form makes no reference to any fashionable style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied as apartments; being rehabilitated into an eleven-unit apartment complex, with the cafe space converted to an apartment.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.787914-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/83/9718/40971883/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/86002618.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100006994","name":"Segundo Barrio Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/segundo-barrio-historic-district-100006994/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971883","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107322395"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/el-paso-county/silver-dollar-cafe-86002618/"}