Timeline of El Paso, Texas

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of El Paso, Texas, USA.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 20th century

• 1682 – Ysleta Mission established.^[1]
• 1848 – El Paso becomes part of the U.S. state of Texas per Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.^[2]
• 1849 – U.S. military Fort Bliss established.^[1]
• 1850 – El Paso County created.^[3]
• 1873 – El Paso incorporated.^[2]
• 1876 – Lone Star newspaper begins publication.^[4]
• 1881
  • Southern Pacific Railroad begins operating.^[1][5]
  • El Paso Times and El Paso Herald newspapers begin publication.^[4]
• 1882 – Avenida Lerdo–Stanton Street Bridge^[6] and Montgomery Building constructed.
• 1883 – First National Bank built.^[7]
• 1884
  • El Paso County seat relocated to El Paso from Ysleta.^[5]
  • El Paso Browns baseball team formed.^[8]
• 1889 – McGinty Club active.^[9]
• 1890 – Population: 10,338.
• 1892 – Santa Fe Street bridge built.^[6]
• 1895 – El Paso Public Library founded.^[10]
• 1899 – American Smelting and Refining Company plant in operation.^[11]

20th century

• 1900 – White House Department Store in business.^[12]
• 1901 – El Paso Electric Company formed.^[13]
• 1902
  • Electric streetcar begins operating.^[13]
  • Popular Dry Goods Department Store in business.^[12][14]
• 1906 – Union Depot opens.
• 1910 – Population: 39,279.
• 1911 – Anson Mills Building constructed.^[7]
• 1912 – Hotel Paso del Norte in business.^[7]
• 1914
  • Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso established.^[15]
  • Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy opens.^[16]
• 1917 – Cathedral Parish of Saint Patrick dedicated.
• 1919 – June 15–16: Battle of Ciudad Juárez occurs near El Paso.^[9]
• 1920 – Population: 77,560.
• 1921 – Ku Klux Klan active.^[9]
• 1922 – El Paso Post newspaper begins publication.^[4]
• 1924 – United States Border Patrol begins operating.
• 1925 – Cathedral High School established.
• 1926 – Orndorff Hotel built.^[9]
• 1928 – El Paso Municipal Airport built.^[9]
• 1930
  • Bassett Tower built.
  • Plaza Theatre opens.
  • Hilton Hotel in business.^[7]
  • Population: 102,421.^[2]
• 1933 – Junior League of El Paso founded.
• 1935 – Sun Bowl football contest begins.
• 1936 – United States Court House built.^[2]
• 1937
  • El Paso Mothers’ Health Center opens.^[14]
  • Kress Building constructed.^[7]
• 1938 – El Paso Ysleta Port of Entry established.
• 1939 – Fort Bliss National Cemetery established near city.
• 1940 – Population: 96,810 city;^[1] 131,067 county.
• 1942
  • Biggs Air Force Base begins operating near Fort Bliss.
  • Ysleta–Zaragoza Bridge rebuilt.^[6]
  • El Paso County Coliseum opens.
• 1946 – El Paso Drive-in cinema opens.^[17]
• 1949 – Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy becomes Texas Western College
• 1950
  • Bronco Drive-In cinema opens.^[18]
  • Population: 130,485.^[1]
• 1952 – Town of Anthony incorporated near El Paso.
• 1954 – El Paso County Historical Society founded.^[19]
• 1959
  • El Paso Museum of Art founded.
  • Sunland Park Racetrack opens in nearby Sunland Park, New Mexico.
• 1960
  • El Paso Aerial Tramway begins operating.
  • Northgate Mall opens with "acres of parking"^[20]
  • Population: 276,687.
• 1961 – Village of Vinton incorporated near El Paso.
• 1962
  • Bassett Place shopping mall in business.^[8]
  • Chase Tower built.
• 1963 – Sun Bowl stadium opens.
• 1965 – Fox Theatre (cinema) opens.^[18]
• 1967
  • Cordova Bridge built.^[6]
  • Texas Western College becomes University of Texas at El Paso.
  • El Paso BOTA Port of Entry built per Chamizal treaty.
• 1969 – San Jacinto Plaza remodelled.^[7]
• 1970 – Population: 339,615.
• 1971
  • El Paso Genealogical Society founded.^[21]
  • Wells Fargo Plaza hi-rise built.
• 1972
  • September: Raza Unida Party convention held in El Paso.^[22]
  • El Paso Community College established.
• 1973 – Biggs Air Force Base becomes Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss.
• 1974
  • Civic Center opens.^[23]
  • Cielo Vista Mall, first enclosed air-conditioned shopping center, opens.^[20]
  • Chamizal National Memorial established.
• 1977 – El Paso Museum of Archaeology established.
• 1980
  • Mujer Obrera (labor group) established.^[24]
  • Population: 425,259 city; 479,899 county.
• 1983 – Kayser Building constructed.
• 1987
  • Franklin Mountains State Park opens.
  • Sun Metro Mass Transit System active.
• 1988
  • Sunland Park Mall in business.
  • Horizon City incorporated near El Paso.
• 1989 – El Paso Patriots soccer team formed.
• 1990 – Population: 515,342 city;^[25] 591,610 county.
• 1997 – Silvestre Reyes becomes U.S. representative for Texas's 16th congressional district.^[26]
• 1998 – City website online (approximate date).^[27]
• 1999 – Chihuahuan Desert Gardens established.^[28]

21st century

• 2000 – Population: 563,662 city; 679,622 county.
• 2003
  • Carolina Park skatepark opens.^[29]
  • Cinemark West cinema in business.^[18]
• 2004 – International news media reports on ongoing female homicides in Ciudad Juárez area.^[30]
• 2005
  • El Diario de El Paso Spanish-language newspaper begins publication.
• 2006
  • Railroad and Transportation Museum of El Paso established.
  • Major flooding from up to 10 inches of rain in one week.^[31]
• 2007
  • El Paso Marathon begins.
  • El Paso Skatepark Association formed.^[29]
• 2008 – Borderzine website launched.^[32]
• 2010
  • December 17: Mexican drone crashes down in El Paso.^[33]
  • Population: 649,121 city;^[34] 800,647 county.
• 2011 – Worst drought in a decade.^[35]
• 2013
  • ASARCO smokestacks demolished.
  • City Hall demolished to make room for Southwest University Park baseball stadium.^[36]

See also

• History of El Paso, Texas
• List of mayors of El Paso, Texas
• History of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
• Timeline of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
• National Register of Historic Places listings in El Paso County, Texas
• Timeline of Texas

Other cities in Texas

• Timeline of Arlington, Texas
• Timeline of Austin, Texas
• Timeline of Dallas
• Timeline of Houston
• Timeline of San Antonio

References

1. Leon E. Seltzer, ed. (1952), Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 571, OL 6112221M
2. Federal Writers' Project 1940.
3. Scholl Center for American History and Culture. "Texas: Individual County Chronologies". Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. Chicago: Newberry Library. Retrieved December 2014.
4. "US Newspaper Directory". Chronicling America. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Retrieved December 2014.
5. Manuel G. Gonzales (2009). Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States (2nd ed.). Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-00777-1.
6. Daniel D. Arreola; James R. Curtis (1994). The Mexican Border Cities: Landscape Anatomy and Place Personality. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-1441-0.
7. "Historic Preservation: Downtown Design Guidelines". City of El Paso. Retrieved December 2014.
8. Trish Long (ed.). "Tales from the Morgue: El Paso History is Never Dead (blog)". El Paso Times. Retrieved December 2014.
9. Sonnichsen 1971.
10. "Timeline". Women in Texas History. Austin: Ruthe Winegarten Memorial Foundation for Texas Women's History. Retrieved December 2014.
11. "Timeline: History Of Asarco In El Paso". USA: National Public Radio. 2010.
12. Alexis McCrossen, ed. (2010). Land of Necessity: Consumer Culture in the United States–Mexico Borderlands. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-9078-7.
13. El Paso Times 2009.
14. University Library Special Collections Department. "Finding Aids". University of Texas at El Paso. Retrieved December 2014.
15. "Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: USA". Norway: Oslo katolske bispedømme (Oslo Catholic Diocese). Retrieved May 2015.
16. "UT El Paso – 90th Anniversary Timeline". University of Texas at El Paso. Retrieved December 2014.
17. "Drive-In Theaters". Borderlands. El Paso Community College. 1996.
18. "Movie Theaters in El Paso, TX". CinemaTreasures.org. Los Angeles: Cinema Treasures LLC. Retrieved December 2014.
19. "About Us". El Paso County Historical Society. Retrieved December 2014.
20. New life for Northgate Mall: City hopes to restore luster to Northeast's faded gem, by Aaron Bracamontes \ El Paso Times, 08/01/2011
21. "El Paso Genealogical Society". Roots Web. Retrieved December 2014 – via Ancestry.com Inc.
22. "Raza Unida Party returns to ‘la lucha’". Borderzine. El Paso. September 21, 2012.
23. "City Is Hosting Public Open House". El Paso Herald Post. 1974.
24. Honig 1996.
25. Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990, US Census Bureau, 1998
26. "Texas". Official Congressional Directory. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1997.
27. "Welcome to El Paso on the Internet". Archived from the original on December 1998 – via Internet Archive, Wayback Machine.
28. "Garden Search: United States of America: Texas". London: Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Retrieved June 2015.
29. "El Paso, Texas". Skatepark.org. Portland, Oregon: Skaters for Public Skateparks. 2010. Retrieved December 2014.
30. Cordelia Candelaria, ed. (2004). "Chronology". Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. lxiii–lxxii. ISBN 978-0-313-33210-4.
31. J. Rogash, M. Hardiman, D. Novlan, T. Brice, V. MacBlain. "Meteorological Aspects of the 2006 El Paso Texas Metropolitan Area Floods". NOAA/National Weather Service, Weather Forecast Office, Santa Teresa, New Mexico/El Paso, Texas.
32. "Texas". CJR's Guide to Online News Startups. New York: Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved December 2014.
33. "Mexican drone crashes in El Paso in Texas". BBC News. December 17, 2010.
34. "El Paso (city), Texas". State & County QuickFacts. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved December 2014.
35. "How El Paso is beating the worst drought in a generation". The Guardian. June 27, 2011.
36. "Baseball Stadium Bolsters El Paso's Resurgence", New York Times, May 28, 2013

Bibliography

Published in the 19th century

• El Paso, Texas and Paso del Norte, Mexico, Business Directory, 1885 – via University of Texas at El Paso
• Directory of the City of El Paso – via University of Texas at El Paso 1886–1899

Published in the 20th century

• Directory of the City of El Paso – via University of Texas at El Paso 1901–1905
• Federal Writers' Project (1940), "El Paso", Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State, American Guide Series, New York: Hastings House – via Hathi Trust
• Mills, W. W., Forty Years at El Paso, Carl Hertzog, 1962
• C. L. Sonnichsen and M. G. McKinney (1971). "El Paso-from War to Depression". Southwestern Historical Quarterly 74. JSTOR 30236653.
• Jones, Harriot Howze, El Paso A Centennial Portrait, El Paso County Historical Society, 1973
• W. H. Timmons (1980). "El Paso Area in the Mexican Period, 1821–1848". Southwestern Historical Quarterly 84. JSTOR 30236883.
• W. H. Timmons (1983). "American El Paso: The Formative Years, 1848–1854". Southwestern Historical Quarterly 87: 1–36. JSTOR 30241078.
• W. H. Timmons, El Paso A Borderlands History, Texas Western Press, The University of Texas at El Paso 1990
• Emily Honig (1996). "Women at Farah Revisited: Political Mobilization and Its Aftermath among Chicana Workers in El Paso, Texas, 1972–1992". Feminist Studies 22.

Published in the 21st century

• "With the railroad came bustling Downtown El Paso traffic". El Paso Times. February 23, 2009.

External links

• "(El Paso County, TX)". Portal to Texas History. University of North Texas Libraries.
• Items related to El Paso, Texas, various dates (via Digital Public Library of America)
• Fun in the 1890s: The McGinty Club Borderlands (EPCC)