Name: Harlingen, Texas
Address: Harlingen, TX

Rio Hondo, TX RoadyGoat

Rio Hondo. It’s a small town, nestled there in the Valley, where the resacas snake through the landscape like silver ribbons. You might just drive through on your way to someplace else. But this little place has given the world some real talent.

7.7 mi away

La Feria, TX RoadyGoat

La Feria, Texas – a flat stretch of land not far from the Arroyo Colorado, where the cotton fields stretch out under the big Texas sky. It's a place where Friday night lights mean everything, where the rivalry between local high schools is a tradition passed down through generations. And it's a place that's seen its share of interesting characters come and go.

8.2 mi away

La Feria, TX RoadyGoat

La Feria, nestled in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley, owes its very name to the spirit of community and celebration. Established in 1909, the town was christened "La Feria," which simply means "the fair" in Spanish. The name wasn't chosen at random; it reflected the importance of the local fair, a vibrant gathering that brought together farmers, merchants, and families from across the region. It was a place to showcase the Valley's bounty – the cotton, the citrus – and a place to connect. Even today, echoes of that original fair linger in the town's annual celebration, complete with traditions like the greased pig contest, a testament to the enduring agricultural roots. That spirit of friendly competition extends to the football field, where local high school rivalries burn bright. La Feria, despite facing challenges like the Great Depression's impact on the cotton industry, has always found ways to persevere. The nearby Arroyo Colorado, winding its way to the Laguna Madre, is a constant reminder of the Valley's rich natural resources. And while the town sits relatively flat, a mere 36 feet above sea level, its name speaks volumes about the vibrancy and communal heart that continues to define La Feria.

8.2 mi away

Hill, Leonidas Carrington, Sr. [Lon]

1903

Leonidas (Lon) Carrington Hill, Sr., South Texas developer, the son of Maj. William H. and Minerva Frances (Vernon) Hill, was born on Gilleland Creek in Travis County, Texas, on July 31, 1862. He attended Rock Church School, Parson's Seminary Episcopal School near Manor, and Add-Ran Male and Female College. Hill married Eustacia Dabney on December 13, 1882. After managing a general store in Manor, he studied law and moved to Austin to attend the law school at the University of Texas. He also attended the University of Virginia, where he received his license to practice law in that state on September 1, 1890; he was licensed for practice in Texas on March 13, 1891. In April of that year Hill and his family moved to Beeville, where he practiced law for twelve years. On June 20, 1896, the Bee County Democrats endorsed Hill for district attorney. He was serving in that position as late as 1899, by which time he was considered one of the Democratic party leaders of the county. Hill was first introduced to the lower Rio Grande valley while traveling from Alice to Brownsville. He became interested in developing the area and started purchasing land in Cameron County. He started a rice plantation in the Brownsville area, ran the Miller Hotel, and platted Six Shooter Junction. He continued to practice law in Bee County through 1902, while his rice plantation remained under the management of Elmo Coleman. Between August 1901 and November 1902 Hill acquired 300,000 acres in the Hidalgo-Cameron County area. The city of Harlingen, which he founded, was located on land that had been Cameron County school lands, Texas school lands, and part of the King Ranch . He paid $2.50 an acre for the King Ranch property he purchased from Mrs. Henrietta King . On June 6, 1903, Hill called a mass meeting in Brownsville to propose the construction of a railroad; he subsequently headed the soliciting committee to raise the bonus for the road. On June 10, 1903, Mrs. Hill and their eleven children joined him in Cameron County, first at Point Isabel and then at Brownsville. At that time Hill was operating a hardware and implement store in Brownsville. A year later, when the Gulf Coast lines reached the clearing that was to be Harlingen, he was one of the three men who guaranteed the bonus for an extension of the Sam Fordyce branch to the Starr county line. On August 10, 1903, he chartered the Lon C. Hill Improvement Company, which became the Lon C. Hill Town and Improvement Company in 1904. Eustacia and her youngest child died in 1904 of typhoid fever. In 1904 Hill chartered the Capisallo Town and Improvement Company, which laid out the town of Lonsboro. It was later sold to the American Rio Grande Land and Irrigation Company and renamed Mercedes. That same year Hill was one of the incorporators of McAllen. He and others chartered the Harlingen Land and Water Company for $300,000 in 1907. By November 15, 1907, he certified that the company was operating twenty-six miles of canals and that 75,000 acres was under irrigation or being prepared for it. The Hill Sugar Mill was in operation in Harlingen by November 1911. Hill participated in passing the original state law governing irrigation districts, and on August 10, 1914, Cameron County Irrigation District No. 1 was established. Hill was often called "the Chief" because of his height and his heavy, shoulder-length hair. During the early 1900s he met Rex Beach, who chose to use Hill as the model for the main character in his novel Heart of the Sunset (1915). In 1915 Hill received orders from the Texas Rangers to be a border scout so that he might fight off Mexican bandits. About that time he befriended William Jennings Bryan and sold him some land in South Texas. The Hill Sugar Mill was burned down by bandits on July 17, 1917. During World War I Hill served as a "dollar a year man" in Washington, D.C. He continued his land and water development until his death at Harlingen on May 5, 1935. Lon C. Hill Park was ded

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Tichenor, McHenry

1930

McHenry Tichenor, media mogul and Spanish-language radio pioneer, was born on December 21, 1897, in Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky. He was the fourth of five sons of Joseph M. and Effie M. (Coon) Tichenor. His father, a telegraph operator and later a farmer, had served during the Civil War as a private in the Twelfth Kentucky Cavalry. Educated in public schools in Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky, McHenry followed his older brother, Warren Clay, to Oklahoma City, where both were employed in the newspaper business at the Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times . In 1917 the brothers served in the Oklahoma National Guard. The unit was called to active duty in 1918, and the 186 men and 212 horses went to war in 1918 as Company F 111th Ammunition Train, Thirty-sixth Division, where Warren Clay rose to the rank of captain. By 1927 McHenry had moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma, where he was advertising manager for the daily newspaper. In 1928 he married Texan Genevieve Beryl Smith. In 1930 McHenry Tichenor came to the rapidly-developing lower Rio Grande valley of Texas. In 1932 he was able to buy the struggling Valley Morning Star newspaper with its offices in downtown Harlingen, Texas. The purchase from the March-Fentress Group was said to cost $50,000, of which $10,000 was cash. Five years later Tichenor sold the paper to Hubert Hudson for $125,000. Tichenor served as administrator for the relatively new Valley Baptist Hospital and guided it out of serious fiscal difficulties. In 1942 and 1943 he served on its board of trustees. This is likely where exposure to less fortunate patients led to his quiet lifelong medical philanthropy. In the mid-1940s Tichenor and his wife purchased the estate of land promoter, Al F. Parker, in La Feria, Texas. The structure and its beautifully landscaped surroundings occupy a city block and are currently maintained as the McHenry Tichenor Museum Project, a fitting legacy for the character and leadership of Tichenor. In 1940 Tichenor made a decision that would shape the rest of his life.He organized the Harbenito Broadcasting Company. The name was a combination of Harlingen and the adjacent city of San Benito. The radio station opened with a paltry 250-watt signal and a staff of eleven. It secured the call sign KGBS, and popular belief holds that Tichenor used the initials of his wife, Geneviere Beryl Smith, for the call sign. In January 1944 it became an affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and later a minor affiliate of ABC. GBS, however, was also the initials George B. Storer, founder of Storer Communications. In a shrewd move Tichenor, in 1950, sold the call sign KGBS, allowing it to become the call sign of a Storer station in California. His South Texas station then became KGBT by 1952. By 1954 Tichenor's broadcasting entity had expanded with the acquisition of radio station KSOX in Harlingen. On 1530 kHz, this first 50,000-watt station on the Texas side of the Rio Grande valley was originally built by former Harris County judge and Houston mayor, Roy Hofheinz . After the purchase, KGBT gave up its 1240 kHz dial spot for 1530, moved into studios and offices at 1519 West Harrison, and in time, adopted full-time Spanish-language programming—one of the earliest stations in Texas to do so. This innovation was revolutionary for its time. In 1957 a new television studio for KGBT-TV was added by Alfred R. Beck, chief engineer of the station. By 1960 the principals of the station were McHenry Tichenor, president; J.C. Looney of Edinburg,vice-president; and Troy McDaniel, secretary-treasurer and general manager of the station. Tichenor was very active in other areas of economic development in the Rio Grande valley. In the early 1950s he served on the first Cameron County-appointed South Padre Island Park board. This board laid the groundwork for the erection of the first causeway ever to connect the island to the mainland. It was named the Queen Isabella Causeway, and its completion dr

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Howard E. and Mary Butt House

1929

Howard E. and Mary Butt House In 1929 entrepreneur Howard E. Butt moved the headquarters of his developing grocery business to Harlingen. The following year, Howard and his wife, Mary, bought this house from its builders, John and Ruth Townsend, a few months after its completion. During the 1930s, Howard's business (H.E.B. Grocery) grew to more than 28 stores in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas. Known also for their philanthropy and civic work in Harlingen, Howard and Mary Butt lived here until 1940 but owned the house until 1943. Distinguished by its Palladian windows and spiral entry columns, the architectural style of the house is best described as Italian Renaissance. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2000

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Lon C. Hill Home

1904

City's first home, built 1904, by the founder, Lon C. Hill, promoter of railroads and irrigation to the lower Rio Grande Valley. Climate-adapted Victorian house. Here valley pioneers met and planned important developments. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1980

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Harlingen, TX

1940

Harlingen's strategic location at the intersection of U.S. highways 77 and 83 in northwestern Cameron County fostered its development as a distribution, shipping, and industrial center. In 1904 Lon C. Hill envisioned the Arroyo Colorado as a commercial waterway. He named the town he founded on the north bank after a city in Holland. The town's post office was established that year. The first school opened with fifteen pupils in 1905 near the Hill home, the first residence built in Harlingen. Harlingen was incorporated on April 15, 1910, when the population totaled 1,126. In 1920 the census listed 1,748. The local economy at first was almost entirely agricultural. Major crops were vegetables and cotton. World War II military installations in Harlingen caused a jump in population from 23,000 in 1950 to 41,000 by 1960. Harlingen Army Air Field preceded Harlingen Air Force Base , which closed in 1962. The city's population fell to 33,603 by 1972, then climbed to 40,824 by 1980. Local enterprise, focused on the purchase and utilization of the abandoned base and related housing, laid the groundwork for continuing progress through a diversified economy. The estimated population in July 1985 was 49,000, of which about 80 percent was Hispanic. In the late 1980s income from tourism ranked second only to citrus fruit production, with grain and cotton next in order. The addition of wholesale and retail trade, light and medium manufacturing, and an array of service industries has broadened the economic base. Large-scale construction for multifaceted retirement communities is a new phase of industrial development. The city of Harlingen operates a busy industrial airpark where bombers used to land. At Valley International Airport the Confederate Air Force occupied hangar and apron space until 1991. The first hospital in Harlingen was opened in 1923 and consisted of little more than two barracks as wings. The Valley Baptist Hospital was built nearby a few years later, and eventually the older hospital closed. The Valley Baptist Hospital has grown into the Valley Baptist Medical Center. The city's outstanding network of health care specialists and facilities parallels the growth of the still-expanding center. Also serving regional health needs are the South Texas State Chest Hospital, the State Hospital for Children, and the Rio Grande State Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center. Besides public and church-affiliated schools, Harlingen students attend the University Preparatory School, the Marine Military Academy, Texas State Technical Institute, or Rio Grande Vocational and Rehabilitation Classes. Civic and cultural development in Harlingen has kept pace with the growth of the community. Fraternal orders and civic organizations operating in the community include Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Optimist, 20-30, VFW, and American Legion ; a woman's building is maintained as a center for the activities of the many women's clubs active in the city. Development and appreciation of the fine arts are encouraged by organizations such as the Rio Grande Valley Art League, the Art Forum, and the Rio Grande Valley Civic Association, which stages its winter concert series at the 2,300-seat Harlingen Municipal Auditorium. Each March Harlingen is the site of the Rio Grande Valley International Music Festival. The city has two newspapers-the Harlingen Press , a weekly paper established in 1951, and the Valley Star , a daily established in 1911. In 1990 the population was 48,735. In 1992 the city was named an All-America City, cited especially for its volunteer spirit and self-help programs. In 2000 the community had 57,564 inhabitants and 2,549 businesses.

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Harlingen Cemetery

1909

The Harlingen Cemetery came into legal existence in 1912. In that year, Lon C. Hill (1862-1935), founder of the city of Harlingen and president of the Harlingen land and water company, sold 7.6 acres of land at this site for one dollar to trustees of the Harlingen Cemetery. Burials, however, had taken place here since the death of Robert Keen Weems (1893-1909), a teenager who had come to this area in a freight car from Houston. Although weems was the first to be buried at the graveyard, others who had died earlier, such as George Dorough (1868-1904), were reinterred here. This cemetery originally was divided into sections for babies, blacks, Anglos and Hispanics. These divisions have not been utilized since the cemetery was deeded to the city of Harlingen in 1947, but tombstone designs and grave decorations still reflect diverse cultural influences. Leaders of the community that have been buried here include James Lockhart (d. 1947), the town's first postmaster; Horace Johnson (d. 1928), a Cameron County deputy sheriff; and David L. Hinojosa (d. 1932), a Texas Ranger. The cemetery serves as a reminder of the surrounding community's rich heritage. (1984, 1997)

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Harlingen, Texas

Music in Harlingen

Songs About Harlingen

Artists From Harlingen

Rivers & Roads in Song near Harlingen

History of Harlingen

Rio Hondo, TX RoadyGoat

La Feria, TX RoadyGoat

La Feria, TX RoadyGoat

Hill, Leonidas Carrington, Sr. [Lon]

Tichenor, McHenry

Howard E. and Mary Butt House

Lon C. Hill Home

Harlingen, TX

Harlingen Cemetery

Things to Do in Harlingen

Everything Near Harlingen