Last updated: November 11, 2022
Place
Central Marfa Historic District
Photograph by Terri Myers, courtesy of Texas State Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
Marfa, Texas
Significance:
ARCHITECTURE, ART, COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, ETHNIC HERITAGE-HISPANIC
Designation:
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, reference number:100007597
MANAGED BY:
Private
The Central Marfa Historic District lies in the heart of Marfa, Texas, and encompasses most of the city’s original commercial, domestic, and civic core dating from its inception as a railroad water stop in 1881, and continuing through its initial growth and development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to its ultimate build-out in the postwar era.
Marfa originated as a water supply and freight shipping station on the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio (GH & SA), branch of the Southern Pacific railroad, when track was laid through the sparsely populated Trans-Pecos region of West Texas in 1881. In 1883, the First Assistant U.S. Postmaster General assigned an official post office to the “[water] tank town” named Marfa, reportedly after a character in Feodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Mining began to have an effect on Marfa’s economy as the hub for all kinds of supplies and equipment in the 1890s. In 1890, Marfa handled more freight than any other station between Del Rio and El Paso.
The Blackwell School, designated a National Historic Site in 2022, served as the only public school institution for Marfa's Hispanic students from 1909-1965. Segregation began in Marfa in 1892 following the completion of a new school for the city’s non-Hispanic students. Although there was no state law that mandated separate schools for Hispanic students, Texas school districts perpetuated the practice of de facto segregation through the mid-twentieth century.
The Mexican Revolution prompted the U.S. Government to reestablish a military presence along the entire length of the Rio Grande and adjacent communities, including Marfa, where U.S. cavalry troops were posted in 1911. Thousands of Mexicans moved back and forth across the Rio Grande between Mexico and the Presidio area. Many chose to remain on the American side of the border even after the conflict was resolved, having lost faith in the Mexican government to protect their families or simply for an opportunity to have a better life.
When World War Two broke out, most development shifted to military use. Most of the wartime construction in Marfa occurred at Fort D. A. Russell, a local military institution, including the rehabilitation and construction of quarters and a laundry facility, or at the new Marfa Army Airfield, a vast complex with a hospital, barracks, post chapel, theater, mess halls, runways, hangars, and more.
In more recent years, Marfa has served as a backdrop for several Hollywood movies including The Andromeda Strain (1971), There Will Be Blood (2007), and No Country for Old Men (2007) and has shifted its economy to one more closely tied to tourism and the arts.
One of the more remarkable aspects of the district is the widespread use of adobe brick in the construction of historic buildings. Nearly half of all buildings are built of adobe brick with stucco cladding; in some cases where stucco has eroded, the adobe brick is exposed. Many other frame and masonry buildings in the district are also sheathed in stucco or painted white, which gives the district a cohesive look.
A group of the district’s historic buildings were acquired and adapted by internationally renowned artist Donald Judd, who lived and worked in Marfa from 1973 to 1994. Judd adapted eleven buildings to serve specific uses as art and architecture studios, and as installation spaces for his work and the work of other artists.
Architectural styles in Marfa speak to the city’s Southwestern location and building traditions, which largely derive from Pueblo/Spanish Colonial/Mexican settlement and influence in the El Paso Valley, New Mexico, and Southern Arizona. Above all, adobe construction and stucco cladding rank as the most authentic and prevalent elements of Hispanic building traditions in Marfa.
Marfa originated as a water supply and freight shipping station on the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio (GH & SA), branch of the Southern Pacific railroad, when track was laid through the sparsely populated Trans-Pecos region of West Texas in 1881. In 1883, the First Assistant U.S. Postmaster General assigned an official post office to the “[water] tank town” named Marfa, reportedly after a character in Feodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Mining began to have an effect on Marfa’s economy as the hub for all kinds of supplies and equipment in the 1890s. In 1890, Marfa handled more freight than any other station between Del Rio and El Paso.
The Blackwell School, designated a National Historic Site in 2022, served as the only public school institution for Marfa's Hispanic students from 1909-1965. Segregation began in Marfa in 1892 following the completion of a new school for the city’s non-Hispanic students. Although there was no state law that mandated separate schools for Hispanic students, Texas school districts perpetuated the practice of de facto segregation through the mid-twentieth century.
The Mexican Revolution prompted the U.S. Government to reestablish a military presence along the entire length of the Rio Grande and adjacent communities, including Marfa, where U.S. cavalry troops were posted in 1911. Thousands of Mexicans moved back and forth across the Rio Grande between Mexico and the Presidio area. Many chose to remain on the American side of the border even after the conflict was resolved, having lost faith in the Mexican government to protect their families or simply for an opportunity to have a better life.
When World War Two broke out, most development shifted to military use. Most of the wartime construction in Marfa occurred at Fort D. A. Russell, a local military institution, including the rehabilitation and construction of quarters and a laundry facility, or at the new Marfa Army Airfield, a vast complex with a hospital, barracks, post chapel, theater, mess halls, runways, hangars, and more.
In more recent years, Marfa has served as a backdrop for several Hollywood movies including The Andromeda Strain (1971), There Will Be Blood (2007), and No Country for Old Men (2007) and has shifted its economy to one more closely tied to tourism and the arts.
One of the more remarkable aspects of the district is the widespread use of adobe brick in the construction of historic buildings. Nearly half of all buildings are built of adobe brick with stucco cladding; in some cases where stucco has eroded, the adobe brick is exposed. Many other frame and masonry buildings in the district are also sheathed in stucco or painted white, which gives the district a cohesive look.
A group of the district’s historic buildings were acquired and adapted by internationally renowned artist Donald Judd, who lived and worked in Marfa from 1973 to 1994. Judd adapted eleven buildings to serve specific uses as art and architecture studios, and as installation spaces for his work and the work of other artists.
Architectural styles in Marfa speak to the city’s Southwestern location and building traditions, which largely derive from Pueblo/Spanish Colonial/Mexican settlement and influence in the El Paso Valley, New Mexico, and Southern Arizona. Above all, adobe construction and stucco cladding rank as the most authentic and prevalent elements of Hispanic building traditions in Marfa.