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 La Lomita Historic District - Mission, Texas Posted by:  JimmyEv
N 26° 09.470 W 098° 19.872
14R E 566843 N 2893335
This simple, austere chapel was built by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1899 to serve near-by ranch workers. It’s one of the most peaceful and evocative places in the Valley.
Waymark Code: WM3RB1
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/10/2008
Views: 135
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Two buildings on 122 acres of ranch land comprise the La Lomita Historic District. The two buildings are the lovely La Lomita Chapel, at these coordinates, and St. Peter’s Novitiate, further down the road on a small, 25-foot hill, dubbed La Lomita, or ‘little hill.’ The ranch lands once belonged to the Oblate Fathers. |
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Five priests from the Catholic Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate landed at Point Isabel in 1849, intent upon building churches and missions and re-establishing the Catholic church in the Valley. They built a church, the Immaculate Conception Church, in Brownsville, and worked their way up the Rio Grande River, building a church in Roma, near the western terminus of navigation on the Rio.
The land of La Lomita, sitting on two Spanish porciones almost midway between Brownsville and Roma, was acquired by Rene Guyard, a devout Catholic, before 1849. Guyard built a ranch here, naming it ‘La Lomita’ for the little hill. Guyard requested that the Oblates build a chapel on his ranch, to minister to the families living on La Lomita lands. |
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With its strategic location as a rest stop for travel between Brownsville and Roma, the Oblates obliged, building an adobe chapel in 1865. When Guyard died in 1871, he willed his ranch to the Oblates. The original La Lomita Chapel washed away in a flood, but was rebuilt of stuccoed stone in 1899. A small village, also named La Lomita, developed around the chapel.
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In 1904, tracks for the Sam Fordyce Spur of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexican Railroad were laid about four miles away; that spelled doom for the town of La Lomita. When a townsite was laid-out along the tracks in 1908, most of the residents of La Lomita moved. The new town was named ‘Mission’ in honor of the La Lomita Mission; its main boulevard, leading directly to the La Lomita Mission, was also named in its honor, Lomita Boulevard, only to be changed to ‘Conway Boulevard’ a few decades later.
Two years after the founding of Mission, in 1910, the Oblates built Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in the new town, and virtually abandoned the La Lomita Mission. Over the years, hurricanes destroyed the abandoned town buildings surrounding the chapel. In 1949, the 100th anniversary of the coming of the Oblate Fathers from France, the chapel was literally ‘dug out of the brush’ and restored.
Now the chapel sits quietly behind the levee, in a forested grove a few hundred yards from the Rio, open to the public and still used occasionally for mass while waiting to be permanently separated from Mission by the border wall going up on the levee. Most of the interior, except the altar, is original to its 1899 construction. Once the wall is in place, you’ll probably need a passport to visit this little nugget of American history.
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Sources:
Texas Historical Commission, "La Lomita Historic District"
Available at Texas Historical Atlas
Handbook of Texas Online, "Oblates of Mary Immaculate"
Available at Handbook of Texas Online
Street address:
FM 1016, South of Mission
Mission, TX USA
County / Borough / Parish: Hidalgo County
Year listed: 1975
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Periods of significance: 1875-1899, 1900-1924
Historic function: Church Related Residence, Educational Related Housing, Religious Structure
Current function: Church School, Educational Related Housing, Religious Structure
Privately owned?: no
Hours of operation: From: 9:00 AM To: 5:00 PM
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Season start / Season finish: Not listed
Secondary Website 1: Not listed
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.
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