National Register Listing

Lamesa Farm Workers Community Historic District

a.k.a. Lamesa Farm Labor Supply Center

Jct. of US 87 and US 180, Los Ybanez, TX

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) built the Lamesa Farm Workers Community in 1941-42 in an effort to improve housing and living standards for migrant workers in the cotton-producing farmlands of the West Texas region. Careful planning grounded in the progressive traditions of New Deal era reform created an attractive community, one of about 100 similar camps across the nation. The Lamesa Farm Workers Community Historic District best represents these efforts in Texas as it retains the highest level of historic integrity among the nine FSA facilities constructed in the state. The cohesive collection of planned federal institutional housing is eligible for listing in the National Register in the area of Community Planning and Development. The establishment of the camp coincided with patterns in the state's agrarian economy during the 20th century, including the unstable labor supply situation, the shift in cotton production to the arid West Texas region, and increased mechanization. As a physical manifestation of these trends, the community is significant in the area of Agriculture. It also represents societal attitudes that resulted in the marginalization of Texas' rural Hispanic population, attaining significance in the areas of Ethnic Heritage and Social History at the local level of significance. Further studies aimed at establishing a statewide context for these areas could elevate the historic district's level of significance.

Local significance of the district:
Community Planning And Development; Agriculture; Hispanic; Social History

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.