John Shary arrived in Mission in 1915 and saw an opportunity in citrus farming. His first crop was in 1922 and eventually he&nbsp;owned tens of thousands of acres of property.

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The Mission Historical Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of Mission for future generations. It offers short and long-term exhibits and holds a variety of events and programs each year. It is housed in two buildings: a former post office and the former company building of citrus grower John Shary, who became known as the "Father of the Texas Citrus Industry." The area between the buildings was redeveloped in 2013 as a place for outdoor performances. Shary constructed the building in 1939. The city acquired the property in 1960 and used it as City Hall. The museum opened in 2000.

Mission Historical Museum

Walk by local landmarks in the early twentieth century Hispanic neighborhoods of South Mission and Anglo neighborhoods of North Mission. Theaters, a church, a museum, and homes from the 1910s to 1930s await you.

Priests of the Oblate of Mary Immaculate Order staff the church; this order served as missionaries on both sides of the Rio Grande in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, covering a territory 90 miles wide stretching from Brownsville to Roma. Their main base of operations was at La Lomita, a hilltop north of the Rio Grande and southeast of the future location of the city of Mission. The parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe) was established in 1899 as the first mission of La Lomita Church; the original name of the parish was Our Lady of the Mission (Nuestra Senora de la Mission). The name was changed in 1927 when the new church building was built. The Sisters of Mercy operated the Catholic school affiliated with Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, serving the children of South Mission since 1914. The school occupied an expanded wood frame building by 1933 at the location of the older wooden church on the west side on N. Dunlop Avenue. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School building, constructed in the 1960s, now occupies the site where the older church once stood.  Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of all Mexican Catholics. The twelfth of December is the date of the annual celebration to honor the appearance of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to a Mexican on a hill near Mexico City on that date in 1531. The 1926-1927 church was designed in a combination of Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival styles, as seen in the domed steeple. quatrefoil windows, cast stone entry and espadanas. Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church [OLG] is one of four Catholic churches presently within the city limits of Mission. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is in the 900 block of Matamoros Street, about 8 blocks east of OLG. St. Paul's was built in 1908 in the 1100 block of N. Francisco Avenue and traditionally served the Anglo population in North Mission. St. John of the Fields is on the western edge of town near Jaycee Park.

The towering church in Mission was rebuilt in 1927 after a 1925 fire destroyed Our Lady of Guadalupe's previous sanctuary. The new church was built at a previously vacant lot across from the original church building which is located just west of the current budling. That previous church was built in 1909 and was in a much smaller, wood-frame structure. The four-story tower on the 1920s church is topped by a belfry and the building features arched windows, limestone detailing, mission parapets, and multiple colorful stained glass windows. The building is a Registered Texas Historic Landmark, designated in 1990. 


Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church

Juan Bautista Barbera was born in Spain and moved first to Brownsville in 1905 and then to Mission in 1912. He purchased two lots where the theater would be built and began construction in 1912, finishing in 1915. The south side of Mission developed as mainly Hispanic, and the theater aimed to bring Spanish-language entertainment to town. Traveling theater companies from Mexico preformed at the theater. Juan B. "Barbosa" advertised the theater for sale in a Spanish language San Antonio newspaper in 1920 for $15,000. Some of the politicians and scholars who have given lectures in the theater are Jose Vasconcelos, Jose Manrique (Governor of the Mexican state of Tamaulipis) and Nemesio Garcia Naranjo (an exiled Mexican official). The theater building was used to serve food to the hungry during the Great Depression. Ceremonies to crown the Diecisies de Septembre (16th of September) Fiesta Queen have been held at the theater on Mexican Independence Day. A print shop plus pool tables and a bowling alley were in the north building (518 Doherty) and a pharmacy was in the smaller, south building (514 Doherty). El Teatro La Paz was purchased in 1945 by Enrique Flores Sr., who renamed it the Rio Theater (El Cine Rio). Barbera moved to Laredo and retired. The theater became a location for the arts under the operation of Flores and his wife, Carmen; Mexican and the occasional American movies were screened. By 1949, a wholesale grocers warehouse occupied the north building and a store operated in the south. Enrique Flores Sr. was a grocer and the warehouse was his business. Carmen Flores opened a restaurant and ice cream parlor named the Rio Cold Spot in the south building. Their son, Enrique Flores Jr., an artist, inherited the theater when his father died in 1971. He had exhibited some of his artwork in the theater in the 1960s. Flores and a former classmate from Pan-American College, Xavier Gorena, created a commercial art gallery named Estudios Rio in the theater complex in 1969. In keeping with the times, the gallery was the site of performance art "happenings." A non-profit art organization, the Xochil Art and Cultural Center, operated from the theater and the adjacent bowling alley. Established in 1976, the bicultural art center was one of the earliest Chicano art centers in Texas. "Xochil" means "to blossom" in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs; the center disbanded in 1989. Besides hosting artist exhibitions, the Estudios Rio creates an annual exhibit of altars built by artists and locals for the Day of the Dead Mexican holiday (Dia de los Muertos). The Valley International Players and Theater McAllen groups put on performances in the theater, as did high school drama clubs. The theater also offered art therapy and children's art instruction. The complex was renovated in 1981 with grant funding from Hidalgo County's Community Development program. Enrique Flores Jr. died in 1990 and the property was inherited by his sister, Carmen (Mrs. Joseph Munoz). When the National Register documentation was written in 2002, the three-part building complex contained the Rio Patio Cafe (run by Carmen Munoz) and Estudios Rio in the one-story building at 518 Doherty. Joe's Meat Market (run by Joe Munoz) occupied the one-story building south of the theater at 514 Doherty. Mrs. Munoz showed classic American movies monthly in the Rio Theater. The same businesses occupy the spaces now.

El Teatro La Paz (Peace Theater) dates to 1915 and has been known since 1945 as the Rio Theater. The brick building was constructed by Juan Bautista Barbera, a Spanish immigrant bricklayer, and was used for lectures, showing films, and for staging live performances. Adjacent one-story brick buildings were added in the early 1920s to the north and south of the theater. The complex of  the three buildings at 514, 516 and 518 Doherty was listed in the National Register in 2002. The central and oldest building, the theater at 516 Doherty, was designated a Texas Historical Landmark in 1982. The complex is important for its relationship to Hispanic heritage, the arts and entertainment, the development of Mission, and as an example of early twentieth century commercial architecture.

El Teatro La Paz or Rio Theater

The Border Theater was the fifth movie house constructed by Robert N. and Dell Smith. The building's architect was William J. Moore and the contractor was George Holliday. The stucco-covered building in Pueblo Revival architectural style is wood frame with a brick veneer; faux vigas (projecting roof beams) and heavy wooden lintels mark this style. The north part of the building is only two stories and contains a ground floor store which held a barber shop in the late 1990s. The rest of the main facade is three stories in height; another store occupies the southern end's ground floor and held a jewelry store in the late 1990s. A large marquee attached to the front of the building proclaims "THE BORDER" in large red lettering that reaches higher than the building's roofline. The ticket booth is surrounded by terracotta decorative tiles with scenes of the southwest. Walls in the theater are covered by murals hand-painted in 1942 by E. Risser, an artist from Dallas. The murals show historic scenes from Mission and the Rio Grande Valley. Two staircases lead up to the balcony level. The nearby military installation, Moore Army Air Corps Field, that was established in 1941 helped supply customers for the new movie theater. To keep up with modern times, the single screen was replaced in 1952 to accommodate wide screen movies. The Border was the first theater in the valley to install air conditioning throughout the building. A metal canopy over the recessed entrance on Conway Boulevard was replaced in the 1990s by a narrow hip roof covered in Spanish clay tiles. The building was listed in the National register for its significance in the history of community planning and development as well as entertainment, especially for the period from 1942 to 1948. While most events held in recent years at the Border Theater are free, the attendees make donations and buy concessions. Mr. Ramientos also rents out the theater for special events. The theater holds nearly 400 people; some of the seats in the balcony are still those original to the building in the 1940s.

The Border Theater in within the central business district of Mission on the west side of North Conway Boulevard. The movie theater was constructed from late 1941 to 1942; the Roy Rogers movie "Heart of the Rio Grande" played on opening night on April 3rd. A new co-owner in 2008, Joseph Ramientos, agreed with the previous owners to keep showing movies at the theater. Ramientos also is a pastor at New Hope at the Border church; services are held on Sundays in the theater for a congregation of about 40 people. Films are shown by playing rented movies with a commercial license, and monthly concerts take place. The Border Theater was listed in the National Register in 1998. It is presently closed due to the pandemic.

Border Theater

David "Gregg" Wood purchased half of a city block from the Conway and Hoit Land Company, the founders of Mission. When Wood was elected mayor in 1915, much of the town's roads were unpaved and neighborhoods lacked electricity. The house he had built at 1215 Doherty Avenue is a twin of a house built in 1914 for the Strickland family at 1524 Doherty. The contractor for the Wood house was William Cauthern; he used handmade brick made in Madero, Texas by the Weiske Brick Company and milled lumber from Lynch Davis Lumber. The owner of the Wood House in 2005 was Richard Kemp, who preserved some of the original furniture within the historic home. Roughly two out of three buildings in the Oblate Park National Register Historic District is a contributing resource, or about 220 of 350 buildings. The district covers about 40 city blocks over 140 acres and the resource dates are 1910 to 1955. Most of the contributing resources are single-family homes in Late Victorian and Late 19th/ early 20th century Revival or American Movement styles and are typically one story tall and set back from the street about 20 feet. There are also some multi-family residences (duplexes, triplexes and small apartment buildings) and a few schools, churches and businesses. Oblate Park is a plaza square that was set up in the 1910s by the French Catholic Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate when they purchased 16 city blocks and moved their church from La Lomita into the new town. Not far from two downtown commercial main streets - Conway (Lomita) Avenue and Tom Landry (Tenth) Street - the "Oblate Addition" neighborhood was practically built out by 1925, and the city bought two of the blocks for schools. The "Blake Addition", directly north of the Oblate Addition, was added to the town in the late 1920s and contains much of the growth in the historic district built in the 1930s and 1940s. While the Craftsman style continued to be used for houses, the Blake Addition's residences also were built in Eclectic revival and Ranch styles. About one half of the houses in the historic district are wood frame while the other half are brick. The Blake Addition was fully developed by 1949. A few undeveloped lots in the Oblate Addition were built up after 1925, and a few older buildings were replaced. The neighborhood is walkable; many residents didn't need to drive to get to work or school, through the 1960s.

The house at 1215 Doherty Avenue is an excellent example of a Craftsman Bungalow home. David "Gregg" Wood bought the eastern half of a city block in the new town of Mission in 1911. Wood worked as an irrigation superintendent and was elected Mayor in 1915. Wood had the house built in 1917 as a typical, one-story bungalow. A second-story addition was constructed in the 1920s to provide more room for the family, using Mission Revival elements. The Gregg Wood House is a contributing element in the National Register-listed Oblate Park Historic District, a mainly residential early to mid-twentieth century, middle-class neighborhood bounded roughly by E. 10th and E. 16th Streets and N. Doherty and N. Keralum Avenues.  A map of the historic district is included here; larger-scale maps are available in the NRHP nomination, linked below, beginning on page 72.

South to North Mission Historical Walking Tour

Mission Historical Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information