Socorro Mission

Nuestra Señora de la Concepcion del Socorro was founded in the spring of 1682 as the third pueblo in the resettlement of the New Mexico Indians who fled with the Spanish during the Popé Uprising (Pueblo Revolt). The pueblo and mission at Socorro were founded to serve the displaced Piro, Tano, and Jemez Indians of New Mexico. Architecturally, Socorro and Ysleta are displaced New Mexican missions, much the same as the Indian population that they served. The massing, materials, and use of native decorative elements in these mission churches, particularly Socorro, show a strong kinship to the architectural traditions which evolved in the seventeenth century in Spanish New Mexico. The history of these missions was also, for a century and a half after their establishment, more closely related to New Mexico than Texas.

Franciscan missionaries established the Socorro pueblo and mission on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, seven and a half leagues south of Ysleta. Because of an uprising among the Indians in 1683, the original site was abandoned and a location one league from Ysleta was chosen. This closer site was selected to allow a degree of protection for the Spanish missionary in charge.
In 1760 Bishop Tamaron visited Socorro, as well as the other missions in the El Paso del Norte area, and left the following account: "From Isleta to Socorro was about one league east. This mission and pueblo, like the others, was near the river and had its resident missionary. There were 46 Zuma families with 182 persons living in the pueblo. A small settlement called Tuburcio made up entirely of Spaniards, formed part of the mission. There were 82 families with 424 persons in Tuburcio. The mission church was 36 varas long (one vara = 33.33 inches) and seven wide, with a transept 14 3/4 varas from end to end".

According to Bishop Tamaron's description, the original church at Socorro was somewhat larger than the mission at Ysleta, the nave was about 5 to 6 feet wider, and the transept was more than 15 feet wider than at Ysleta. This church was destroyed by flood in the first decades of the nineteenth century. According to local tradition, the mission, which was rebuilt about a mile from the flooded site, on the location of a legendary miracle, was similar to the destroyed structure and the new church reused some of the old materials. The third site of the Socorro mission occupies the location where a miracle concerning the transport of a Spanish statue of Saint Michael is reported to have occurred.

"According to the legend, Indians were taking the statue to a mission in New Mexico. But the heavy wheels of the cart
creaked to a halt in the sandy soil of the El Paso lower Valley... the phenomenon was finally explained as a sign from heaven that the statue of Saint Michael should remain where it was, and a small chapel was built to protect it" (Binion, An Introduction to El Paso.): This same statue of Saint Michael is on the altar in the west transept.

The present church was constructed circa 1840 and, excluding the replacement of windows, doors, and some interior decoration, the fabric of the structure is basically unchanged. The Socorro Mission has served the surrounding community since its establishment in 1682 and continues to be an active religious institution.

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1964.