{"nrhp_refnum":"95001284","name":"Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company Irrigation System","other_names":["Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S. 2nd St. at River Levee","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hidalgo","county":"Hidalgo County","state":"TX","lat":26.19198295800004,"lon":-98.17005315669668,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-11-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Engineering","Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An irrigation system near Hidalgo, Hidalgo County, Texas, made up of a first-lift pumphouse beside the Rio Grande, a second-lift pumphouse near McAllen, and a network of canals. The pumphouse core dates to 1910, and the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company built the system.","why_significant":"The system turned dry ranch land into irrigated orchards and truck gardens in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in the 1910s and 1920s. The first-lift pumphouse keeps its 1911-1912 boilers, steam engines and centrifugal pumps. The canal alignments remain largely as built, and the period of significance ends with the 1949 freeze that destroyed most of the valley's citrus trees.","narrative":"Water for farming in the Lower Rio Grande Valley once depended on lifting it over the high banks of the river. This irrigation system near Hidalgo did that through two steam-powered pumphouses and a canal network built by the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company, chartered in 1910. The first-lift pumphouse stands beside the Rio Grande. Its core dates to 1910, with major additions in 1911 and 1912 and later room units in 1948 and 1952. The 1912 section has a Mission Revival facade, and boilers, steam engines and pumps from 1911 to 1912 remain in place. A second-lift pumphouse near McAllen boosted water above a natural ridge, and the canals carried it to farmland. The canals run above ground and in concrete pipe, and their main alignment is largely unchanged. The system turned ranch land into irrigated orchards and truck gardens. Its period of significance runs from about 1904 to 1949, when a freeze destroyed most of the valley's citrus trees.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1904-1949","architect_builder":"Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company; engineer E.B. Gore supervised design and construction, with W.H. McGrath selecting sites and overseeing the pumping stations","architectural_style":"Late 19th & 20th Century Revivals: Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"The form lists current function as irrigation and also as vacant/not in use. The first-lift pumphouse was sold to the City of Hidalgo in 1993 for conversion to a museum. The second-lift pumphouse interior is empty of historic machinery.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.37103-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/9725/40972562/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/95001284.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972562","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34730601"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/hidalgo-county/louisiana-rio-grande-canal-company-irrigation-system-95001284/"}