El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-01-27

| posite the ancient city OF Paso del
! Norte, Juan Maria Ponce de Leon, the
first settler on this side, built his
On The sheldon Site.
Diagonally southeast and across the
( street, on the site Of the hotel Sheldon.
! was in 1881 a large adobe building, one
/ story high, covering the entire DOCK
/ the present hotel site.
On the northwest corner of this
! site where the Texas & Pacific pas
! senger office now Is, Kohlberg BROS
/ opened their first cigar store in the
( old adobe structure in 1881, and some
4 time after Joe Beach opened restaur-
! ant in the rooms next south Where the
/ entrance to the Sheldon from the
/ Pioneer Plaza is. On the north side
] where the front entrance Of the hotel
{ is, on Mills street. sam Hing mad MS
/ Chinese store. and later on Lendner had
4 his assay office adjoining.
! When the new Sheldon building was
/ erected in 1867, for an office building,
! the Rio Grande pharmacy of Robert
! Campbell, and the Shelter offices were
! among the first tenants Kelly & Pol-
3 lard were the successors OF Campbell
Z and occupied the old Kohlberg site
until they moved to their present store
! in the same building
Back Of the old sheldon site where
{ the Connerton-Lane building is, was
( an old adobe house in 1881 which was
Z occupied by Cinnamon, and underneath
the ground was like the hecatombs
; labyrinth OF OPIUM uelS II was q
regular rathOle for the t1ends-
Back of the present Mills building,
/ on the site of the St. Regis hotel were
some one story buildings, IN Whlcn
/ that summer Col Mari and Col. Ben
nett had their FL PasO transfer and
/ livery stables. and afterwards sue
I ceeded by DetWeiler Bros Inc st
Regis hotel was built about 1900 on
these premises.
Around San JacintO Plaza.
East of the present Sheldon hotel,
on the site of the federal custom house
and Dostoffice. Greeted in $3.50 was
east another in which. in the fail Of
1881, was the postoftlce under MS
J. D. Porter, the first postmaster 4
second story was later added 70 IT
Next east extending to the corner
Of the present Mesa avenue, was the
home and office Of Rev James wilkins
Tays, Episcopal missionary and founder
Of st. Clements Episcopal church and
owner Of Tays addition The sites or
these two last mentioned buildings are
now covered by the Rooerts-Banner
building
The old plaza in front was then
treeless and a barren waste. Fronting it
on the north side was low rambling
adobe. the first and only buudlng on
the north side Of the southern PaclIlc
railroad track that entire part Of town
being nothing bur a gravel eEpanse
covered with CROSSWORD and mesquite
bushes. and Astounding IN Qualls ana
rabbits clear UP to Mount Franklin
The only road through II was along
the line of the present north oregon
street leading up to the old grave
yard around where Carnegie and
Cleveland squares and the Linden hotel
are. This cemetery only intensified
the solitude OF that locality
On the southeast corner Of St. Louis
CBIills) and Utah Mesa Ave-,)
streets. was the Old adobe residence
Of John Woods (cOlOred) an eX-deputy
sheriff Of the county. which still
stands. though its fronts have been
remOdeled. This was at one time the
Z. S. custom house, under W W Mills's
administration
stanton and Texas Streets.
On the next block east Of this, at
the southeast corner Of Mills and Stan
ton streets, the present site Of the
Bassett building or Lake house, was
o. 7. Bassett's lumber yards, esta.b-
Eshed in 1881, q Photographic view Of
which, taken at the time appears in
this edition
On the same block, on the southwest
corner OF Kansas and Mills streets,
was the old adobe homestead of judge
Josiah F. Crosby; and in this, in 1855,
was born William Crosby, the first
child Of anglOsaxOn parentaga born in
Ell PasO. This was in 1881 the eX-
IRENE eastern limit of any structures
on the line Of the present Mills street
until the building Of the Southern Pa
clfic freight depot shops and round
house in the summer Of 1881
All east Of there between the rail-
! road and Myrtle street was a low bot
tom, once the river bed. and in the fan
I of that year it was inundated by the
I torren1al floods and remained a lake
: covered with ducks for nearly. a year
I afterwards A picture in this edition
! shows the waste stretching off to the
! east
] Mills Street.
In 1881 about the time OF the con-
struction Of the Southern Pacific pas
/ senger depot Mrs ROsina Sicily came TO
/ town and started the old Pacific hotel
] IN tents, which she afterWard replaced
! VIII the large two story buildings on
the west side OF north Stanton and the
/ north side Of Mills streets. which are
now called the Commercial hotel prom
/ ertyi she soon after built a lot Of
houses on Texas street east of Camp
bell street, for tenement houses
] In the fall of 1882. judge Pierson built
I the old three story Pferson hotel on
the northwest corner Of Kansas and
/ nils streets. afterWard DESTROYED 'bv
! fire and replaced by the present Pier
son hotel and still owned by the heirs
I Of Mr.. Person In 1885 Francis Parker
3 the photographer SUCCESSFULLY RIM nv
Z Joe, J. H. Stein Ed Hawlev ana Tob1
1 Freidenoloom built the old Vendorne
motel Wnlch Is now enlarged and called
I the nolel CrnoorII owned by the Orn-
dorfI hotel company and managed bv
I Chas. DeGroff large stakeholder in
I the company
AS already stated there was in June
I 1881 only one building on the north
side of the Southern Pacific track
and that was the old adobe one story
I building with portales or arches in
front facing on the north side of san
Jacinto plaza. This was called +be
{ Arcade. In it was a saloon and restaurant
! It belonged at one time to Mr.. Rbonsn
and is on the present site of Inc
Angelus hotel ana crawford theater.
Mesa Avenue.
Originally the present Mesa Avenue
was called north Utah street. and
( Broadway, below San Antonio street
I was called south Utah street me
( subsequently unsavory name of the Iat-
I ter caused the aristocratic dweIlers of
the north side to change the name OF
their part Of the street to Mesa avenue.
During the first ten or fifteen years