Terlingua Historic District

Terlingua Historic District takes in most of a former quicksilver mining town in southern Brewster County, Texas. It contains 97 contributing resources tied to the Chisos Mining Company camp, which operated from 1903 to 1943. The district includes dugouts cut into an arroyo, one- and two-room limestone houses where Hispanic miners and their families lived, and adobe buildings used by Anglo workers and managers. Larger adobe structures include the Perry Mansion, built in 1906 by mine owner Howard Everett Perry, the Chisos Store and Theater, Perry School, and St. Agnes Catholic Church. Builders relied on local limestone, mud and scarce lumber, and used double roofs, thick mud roofs and thatch ramadas against the heat. Housing followed racial lines, a pattern visible in building forms and materials. Many stone houses and adobe ruins are deteriorated, though the stone houses are described as generally stable. The district was listed for what it preserves of this isolated desert mining community.