Manhattan Heights Historic District

Manhattan Heights is a hillside residential neighborhood in El Paso, Texas, laid out in 1912 on the site of a former metal smelting plant at the base of Mt. Franklin. Slag mounds from the smelter altered the street grid near Memorial Park, a 43-acre city park that serves as a green oasis in an arid setting. The district holds roughly 600 houses, mostly bungalows alongside Spanish Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival and Prairie Style homes. The first house, built in 1914 at 3037 Federal Avenue, was designed by Otto Thorman. Other designers include Trost and Trost, Mabel Welch, the city's first female architect, and William G. Wuehrmann. Three churches, three apartment buildings, a school, a service station and a telephone building add variety. Most of the 612 structures predate 1930, and later buildings largely follow earlier styles. Well-kept lawns, mature trees and few harmful alterations give the area a cohesiveness that other older El Paso neighborhoods lack.