Holden Properties Historic District

Adobe Row is a cluster of Pueblo Revival homes and apartments on 20th Street in Lubbock, two blocks south of the Texas Tech University campus. Built between 1930 and the early 1970s, the seven buildings share adobe walls, flat roofs with parapets, exposed vigas, rounded corners, and turquoise-blue trim. Two large houses, Casa Grande and Casa del Gallo y Sirena, anchor the group, with smaller apartments and a workshop around them. A seven-foot adobe wall with gates links the properties and creates private courtyards. Adobe was used in every building before 1962, after which pumice concrete block was substituted for additions. The complex was developed by Dr. William Curry Holden, who joined the Texas Tech faculty in 1929 and taught history and anthropology there for four decades. He led archeological field schools and expeditions across Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. Five of the seven buildings, along with the walls and a well, contribute to the district, which remains largely intact and in residential use.