Well, it's official. El Paso foursquare is officially known as the McBroom House. I had been trying to get some info on my home from the local historical society for a while. It had been probably 4 or 5 times that I'd gone by and they were always closed on a particular day, closed for the holidays, or closed for renovations.
Thankfully, Patricia the local curator of the El Paso County Historical society, helped shed some light on my home. The house was originally owned by Joseph H. McBroom who was a local attorney in El Paso. Here's the kicker though. My house was built in 1914! I was floored because the Central Appraisal District has city records that show my house was built in 1929. However, Patricia said these records are not always accurate and sometimes only have records from when the house was last updated. She verified by looking up the old city directory in 1914 and saw Mr. McBroom listed at my address. The previous year this address didn't exist.
It's kind of cool to think my house is actually 15 years older than we had previously thought. I need to research a little more about the McBrooms, hopefully I can uncover even more info. Thanks Pat!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Very interesting info to have. In MN we get the full property absract which has a lot of info. - if you can read it. But, it would be great to be able to find info. about the previous owners. Nice resource you have. Could the difference in dates be two houses? Around here is was common to build a smaller shack on the back of the propery until you got the $ togather to build the "real" house.
Hmm I never considered that possibility. If there was a shack on the property prior to this house being built it's long gone. It would be nice if I could get more concrete evidence that the house was in fact built in 1914. A photo dated prior to 1929 would be good enough for me. Unfortunately I've hit up the public library downtown and found nothing. Took me about an hour & a half to look through a bunch of old photos.. But for now I'll assume the 1914 date is correct until proven otherwise.
This is a wonderful blog! I am very passionate about old buildings/homes in El Paso...you just don't see construction like that anymore! Plus, they are part of the city's history, and it is important that they are preserved. My father lived in Five Points as a teenager, on Gold Street, and even as a child, I loved the way those quaint houses looked. I am currently also selling a home in that area, and thus had the privilege of looking at it top-to-bottom. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for helping keep this city's history alive!
Hi there, nice to hear from another el pasoan. This blog isn't well known among locals (at least I don't think it is). I love the old part of town too, blemishes and all. It's encouraging to know others share in the enthusiasm for our history. I'd love to see the wealth of old architecture here cherished and given lots of TLC. What I've done is just a drop in the bucket, but hopefully someday we'll get there. Thanks for stopping by! :)
Post a Comment