National Register Listing

Oblate Park Historic district

Roughly bounded by Doherty, Keralum, W. 16th St. and W 10th St., Mission, TX

The Oblate Park Historic District is a residential neighborhood significant for its association with Anglo-American "home seekers" who migrated to the Rio Grande Valley in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s seeking wealth in citrus or oil, as well as relief from cold Midwestern winters. The house forms and architectural styles in Oblate Park are Mission's best and most intact material document of the accelerating migration to the area until the early 1950s when severe freezes crippled the citrus industry. The small cluster of large, early Craftsman-style houses around Oblate Park represents the few pioneers of the citrus industry who came to the valley in the 1910s. Continuous blocks of Craftsman bungalows and Spanish Colonial Revival cottages, popular in the 1920s and 1930s, indicate the sharp jump in housing construction in Mission during that period. The infill development of Early Ranch houses at the edges of the neighborhood marks the steady demand for housing that continued through the 1940s and then tapered off in the early 1950s. The mix of single-family homes, duplexes, and small apartment houses in the area similarly documents the rise of the phenomenon of "Winter Texans," chiefly prosperous Midwestern farmers and businessmen who would purchase a second home and possibly a small citrus grove in the temperate Valley. Additionally, Oblate Park is architecturally significant for its concentration of exemplary California Bungalows and the Spanish Colonial Revival cottages. The houses in Oblate Park mimicked California's architectural styles not just on the surface but in spirit - citrus promoters fashioned Mission after California's citrus towns, and many longtime residents intended to just pass through Mission en route to California but ended up staying. The Oblate Park Historic District is associated with the historic context "Grapefruit's Lone Star Home: The Development of Mission, Texas" outlined in Section E of the National Register Multiple Property Nomination for the Historic and Architectural Resources of Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas. It is eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C for Architecture and under Criterion A for Community Planning and Development, both at the local level.

Local significance of the district:
Architecture; Community Planning And Development

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

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.