City of Harlingen history

Grover Cleveland’s first termThe surplus and the tariffThe public domainThe Interstate Commerce ActThe election of 1888

The Benjamin Harrison administrationThe Sherman Antitrust ActThe silver issueThe McKinley tariffThe agrarian revoltThe PopulistsThe election of 1892

Hill was a lawyer from Beeville, Texas, who began buying land in the fertile Rio Grande delta in 1902, clearing it, and digging irrigation canals to entice farmers from the Midwest to move to the Rio Grande Valley.

Early residents picked up mail and groceries here prior to the opening of the Harlingen post office in 1904.

Hill’s house built in 1905 and is now preserved at the Rio Grande Valley Museum in Harlingen.

Harlingen’s earliest buildings clustered around the railroad tracks, where the railroad built a two-story hotel with two baths in 1906.

The city’s first grave was dug in 1909 when the son of a sugar grower slipped and fell into a vat of boiling syrup.

In 1912 the Harlingen city cemetery was officially established. [For years, salt cedars divided the cemetery into sections for babies, blacks, Hispanics, and Anglos.

In 1920 the first drive-in gasoline station in Harlingen was built on this site.

Harlingen’s first hospital opened in 1923; today it is preserved at the Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum.

The house shown here was built in 1925-26 for Oscar Nathan Joyner, who came to the Valley as an agent for the Texas Company (later Texaco).

Perhaps most remarkable is the 1927 R.W. Baxter Office Building, which for almost 50 years was the Valley’s tallest skyscraper.

For years, Jackson Street has seen parades like 1928 mid-winter fair – t 4th of July and Christmas.

The Sinclair Station was built in 1936.

At about the beginning of WWII, Harlingen was chosen by the War Department in Washington, D.C. in 1941 as a new air-base under the United States Army Air Corps.

World War IIThe road to warThe United States at warWar productionFinancing the warSocial consequences of the warThe 1944 electionThe new United States role in world affairs

The peak Cold War years, 1945–60The Truman Doctrine and containmentPostwar domestic reorganizationThe Red ScareThe Korean WarPeace, growth, and prosperityEisenhower’s second termDomestic issuesWorld affairsAn assessment of the postwar era

“Modern” public buildings of note include Harlingen’s City Hall, designed by C. Lyman Ellis and built in 1950.

The Sun Valley Motor Hotel, built in 1956 on 77 Sunshine Strip, was Harlingen’s contribution to this trend.

1960, (page 81), excerpt from Harlingen School, by Verna Jackson McKenna.

HAFB property was sold and has resulted in three key institutions: MMA, TSTC, VIA. The Marine Military Academy, the only prep school based on Marine Corps traditions, was founded in 1965, and now is home to the original working model of the famous Iwo Jima memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

The park was renamed Gutierrez Park in 1980, in memory of a solider who died in Vietnam.

The opening of Valle Vista Mall in 1982 further ravaged downtown Harlingen.

In 1989, the city established a Downtown Improvement District to revitalize the city center.

The Auditorium was renovated and expanded in 1993 and now serves as headquarters for the city’s signature events including the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival (fall).

The popular Arroyo Hike & Bike Trail, which opened in 1999, connects five city parks and Harlingen Thicket bird sanctuary.

Beginning in 2000, with the acquisition of a major tile mural, The History of Mexico and Mankind, Harlingen decided to develop a new park along the railroad tracks as a linkage between the two districts and home for this spectacular artwork.

In 2003, the Harlingen Mural Project was created to develop more artworks on aspects of Harlingen’s history.