Rio Vista Farm Historic District

With its roots in the county's poor farm traditions of the late 19th century, the management of Rio Vista Farm was predicated on the reform ideals of the progressive movement. When the citizens of El Paso county voted in 1911 to purchase land for a new county farm, the archaic practice of shuttling the poor was losing ground to progressive-era ideals. Indeed, upon its completion in 1915, El Paso County's poor farm was one of the last such institutions established in Texas. Sweeping changes in public welfare programs implemented by the progressive movement all but eliminated the poor farm system in the state by the mid-1930s. El Paso nevertheless maintained Rio Vista Farm until 1964, partly as a result of the remarkable family of caretakers who oversaw the institution's operation throughout its nearly 50-year existence.

From 1916 Rio Vista Farm was run by John and Agnes O'Shea or their daughter, Helen O'Shea Keleher. Largely through their efficient and caring management - a combination of enlightened social theory and a sense of noblesse oblige - El Paso's county poor farm survived, even flourished, when the relief programs initiated during the Great Depression supplanted other county farms throughout Texas. Helen O'Shea Keleher, in particular, strived to maintain a homelike atmosphere at the farm where the residents lived like members of a family. Although her beliefs and practices contrasted sharply with traditional poor farm management, they were consistent with the ideals of America's early 20th-century social reform movement. Her ardent advocacy of these ideals brought more than 4,000 children to live at Rio Vista Farm over the course of her career.

The facility ultimately hosted a variety of public welfare programs including a Texas Transient Bureau camp constructed by the WPA, a temporary CCC camp, a shelter for hundreds of homeless people during the Depression, and a processing center for the Bracero Program. This plan brought thousands of Mexican farm laborers to work in agricultural areas of the United States following World War II. By the 1960s Social Security and other welfare programs made it virtually impossible for applicants to qualify for residency at Rio Vista Farm. State law precluded residency at the county poor farm for those with income from any source. When the El Paso county commissioners decided to close the facility in December 1964, only four elderly clients and Helen Keleher remained at Rio Vista Farm. Although she continued to support worthy causes for the next 20 years, on the occasion of her 90th birthday Keleher recalled that she was most proud of her achievements with the children of Rio Vista Farm. In many regards, the history of Rio Vista Farm is the history of one family's commitment to a social ideal.