Rio Grande Avenue Historic District

Rio Grande Avenue Historic District covers roughly 146 acres of rolling terrain less than a mile northeast of downtown El Paso. The land was platted between 1898 and 1905 in a rectilinear grid, and houses sit close together along alley-served blocks. Brick one-story bungalows make up about 75 percent of the primary buildings, with two-story Prairie foursquare houses at about 14 percent and scattered Spanish Colonial, Mission and Classical Revival homes. Raised front porches create a steady visual rhythm. Institutional buildings include a c. 1903 church, now Greek Orthodox, and a 1908 fire station designed by Henry C. Trost. Early concrete curbs and sidewalks, laid around 1915, still bear street names and contractor marks. The neighborhood grew as El Paso's population surged and streetcar lines reached Arizona Street in 1905. Merchants, government employees, bankers, nurses and teachers lived here, many later moving to nearby Sunset Heights. Of 684 resources, 452 contribute to the district's historic character.