Mission Citrus Growers Union Packing Shed

The Mission Citrus Growers Union packing shed is an outstanding example of the Lamella frame design that was prominently used for warehouses and agricultural processing plants throughout South Texas from the late 1930s until the 1950s. The property is nominated under Criterion A, in the areas of commerce and agriculture at the local level of significance, for its associations with citrus production in Mission during World War II and the late 1940s. The building is also noteworthy for its distinctive Lamella roofing system and is therefore nominated under Criterion C for Engineering at the local significance level. The property is related to the historic context, Grapefruit's Lone Star Home: The Development Of Mission, Texas. It is one of the city's best and most distinctive architectural representations of its historic dependence on agriculture -- particularly citrus -- and agriculture-related businesses. Built by the Mission Citrus Growers Union in 1944, the building also represents the trend toward agricultural cooperatives that began with The Texas Citrus Fruit Growers Exchange in 1923 and expanded throughout the Valley in the 1930s and 1940s, until the major freezes of 1949 and 1951 halted the dominance of citrus in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It is the only historic packing shed in Mission still serving its original purpose.

Although the citrus industry dominated agriculture in the Mission area in the 1920s and the 1930s, growers searched for new ways to maximize profits from their groves. Individual citrus farmers united to form agricultural organizations, known as cooperatives, to process and market their crops in hopes of retaining profits usually made by the middleman or cash buyer. The cooperatives also attempted to stabilize market prices by presenting a united front to buyers. An advertisement for the Texas Citrus Fruit Growers Exchange, the first cooperative in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, urged local farmers to join the union to avoid their fruit "being used to cut prices and reduce the profits of other Valley growers." The association also promised to establish new markets in advance of the harvest and to expand those already in place (Monty's Monthly May 1925).

Cooperatives became even more prominent during the Great Depression of the 1930s when farmers banded together to assist each other and maintain prices. Growers in the Mission area followed the valley-wide trend toward cooperatives and formed the Mission Citrus Growers Union, a member unit of the Rio Grande Valley Citrus Exchange, in 1937. With the start of World War II, the Valley's citrus industry was bolstered by increased military and civilian food demands. The Mission Citrus Growers Union expanded rapidly during the war, packing 351,000 boxes of fruit in the 1943 season. By 1944, it had outgrown its facilities (Mission Times July 14, 1944). During the economic boom of the war years when domestic building was limited and materials were reserved for the war effort, the Mission Citrus Growers Union acquired a permit to construct a new packing shed in Mission. Since food production was essential to U. S. defense efforts, such construction was thus exempt from war rationing.

The Mission Citrus Growers Union purchased a 4.5-acre site at the western edge of Mission from the American Legion for $3,500, in March 1944. Ideally located for agricultural processing, the land parcel had direct frontage onto U.S. Highway 83 on the north and the Union Pacific Railroad on the south. Its proximity to transportation guaranteed easy shipping and receiving. A prominent lumber and building company in the Valley, Nossier Lumber Company, began work immediately on the double-arched, diamond-frame Lamella packing shed. The Lamella honeycomb design allowed for more open space in the cavernous packing "shed," a deceptive colloquial term for fruit packing facilities (Figure 5). According to family members, Edwin Nossier, founder of Nossier Lumber Company, patented the Lamella design that he had learned in his native Germany. His building company constructed the popular dome-shaped buildings throughout the state, particularly in South Texas, until labor costs and materials became too high compared to prefabricated buildings that proliferated in the 1950s (Nossier October 30, 1998). H. B. Swedlund and Sons served as contractors in charge of the project (Mission Times June 23, 1944). Although not a local contractor, H. B. Swedlund moved to Mission for the project, where he lived the remainder of his life (Musser November 13, 1998).

The building contained the most modern packing equipment available and was one of the few packing sheds in the Valley capable of packing both oranges and grapefruit simultaneously (Goodwin October 30, 1998). The Mission Citrus Growers Union offered its member growers the benefits of packing facilities with the capacity to load one million boxes per season and the services of the Texsun sales organization to handle their marketing needs (Mission Times September 15, 1944). Although the citrus industry was dealt a disastrous blow with back-to-back freezes in 1949 and 1951, the Mission Citrus Growers Union remained in business until 1962, when freezing temperatures decreased the yield of the citrus crop for the year, leaving the cooperative in financial trouble. The members of the Mission-area cooperative recovered some of their losses when the Edinburg Citrus Association and The Mission Citrus Growers Union completed a mutually beneficial merger in 1966. The Edinburg Citrus Association paid back debt owed to members of the Mission Association and in return, they acquired the large packing facility and gained new members in the Mission area. The Edinburg association continued to use the Mission packing shed until the freeze of 1983 crippled citrus production and only one facility, the present packing plant at Edinburg, was necessary. The Edinburg association closed the Mission unit and the building lay vacant until Carl Waitz, a local grocer, bought it in 1991. Mr. Waitz died shortly after the purchase and his family used the building for storage. Robert Dyer, owner of Growers Select Produce, purchased the building and rehabilitated it in 1995 for use as a watermelon packing facility (Dyer October 28, 1998).

Two other resources occupy the present Growers Select Produce site. A Cold Room and attached loading dock built in the 1960s lies to the rear of the packing shed, at its southeast corner. When Robert Dyer renovated the packing shed in 1995, he built a new concrete tilt-wall building to the east of the main building to house fruits and vegetables requiring cold storage. Both of these ancillary buildings are non-contributing features of the property. However, they lie on the least accessible portion of the property and detract little from the packing shed's appearance from the public streets. The Mission Citrus Growers Union packing shed is noteworthy for several reasons. It is a good example of a once-typical building type throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It is the only packing shed still used for its original purpose in the Mission vicinity. It represents the area's early 20th-century development and dependence on agriculture and agriculture-related industry. The project was one of the few major domestic construction projects in the Valley during World War II and its priority for construction highlights the importance of Valley citrus in wartime food production. In addition, the building's impressive dimensions, design, and packing capabilities are indicative of the large membership and productivity of the Mission Citrus Growers Union and are thus representative of the success and popularity of agricultural cooperatives, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s.

In addition to its significant historical associations with Mission's economic and agricultural development, the Mission Citrus Growers Union packing shed is also noteworthy for its double Lamella roof design and is therefore nominated to the NRHP under Criterion C for Engineering. The Lamella roof is an unusual structural system that makes use of wood boards bolted together to form a series of interlocking diamond shapes. It was developed for buildings with large interior spans, such as warehouses, auditoriums, and gymnasiums. The Mission Citrus Growers Union packing shed is the only example of the once popular Lamella design buildings still used to pack fruit in the Valley. About half a dozen Lamella roofed buildings from the same period survive in the citrus-growing region of the Lower Rio Grande Valley but none of the known examples retain their integrity to the degree that the Mission Citrus Growers Union building does. These industrial buildings evolved with technology and changing economic conditions and thus their distinctive design features were often removed or obscured with more modern uses. None of the other remaining packing sheds in the area serve their original functions except Mission Citrus Growers Union Packing Shed. Many have been converted to other uses such as storage, and none retain the high degree of integrity displayed by the unique double-Lamella building. A single-arched Lamella building -- a former packing shed -- lies near the Mission Citrus Growers Union building but it is in poor condition, its windows have been removed and the original siding replaced. It serves as a warehouse for old and broken appliances. Other former Lamella packing sheds in the area include a used clothing facility (ropa usada) on the railroad siding near McAllen and a car dealership showroom in Edinburg. The Mission Citrus Growers Union packing shed is the only known double-Lamella design and the only historic fruit-packing shed still used for its original purpose in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It is a rare and remarkably intact illustration of the distinctive structural system and retains its salient, character-defining features to an outstanding degree.