Smelter Town
Smelter Town

Smelter Town

SMELTERTOWN, TEXAS. Smeltertown is an industrial area on Interstate Highway 10, U. S. Highway 80, the Southern Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads, and the east bank of the Rio Grande, just west of downtown El Paso in western El Paso County. The community came into being with the construction in 1887 of the Kansas City Consolidated Smelting and Refining Company (later the American Smelting and Refining Company, or ASARCOqv) copper and lead smelter, after which it was named. In the 1880s the Mexican employees of the smelter began building houses west of the smelter, beside the Rio Grande. San Rosalía Church, named after the Chihuahua town from which most of the first parishioners came, was built in 1891, and E. B. Jones School was established later. The church was later renamed San José del Río Grande, but burned in 1946 and was replaced by the San José de Cristo Rey Church. In 1938 the population of Smeltertown was estimated at 2,500; a post office was established the following year and closed four years later. In June 1945 the El Paso Herald-Post called attention to the poverty in Smeltertown, which included a cluster of small adobe dwellings with dirt floors and windows without glass. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvsds

Area: Central / Smeltertown

Source: El Paso Public Library

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Construction of American Dam, 1937

Note: American Dam; Contraction Joint in floor slab between ...

Construction of American Dam in 1937

Note: 5-22-37 Noon; El Paso, Texas. American Dam; View from ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note: 5-22-37, 12:15 pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; View ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note in image: 5-24-37, 9:30 am, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; ...

American Dam

May 1, 1937 1:15PM El Paso TX. American Dam, view from STA. 1450 ...

American Dam

May 1, 1937 2:20 PM El Paso TX. American Dam, blast at Sta. ...

American Dam

May 3, 1937 9:30 AM El Paso TX. American Dam, erecting steel ...

American Dam

May 3, 1937 9:30 AM El Paso TX. American Dam, pier No. 4&5 ...

American Dam

May 17, 1937 1:30 PM El Paso TX. American Dam, west face of ...

American Dam

March 20, 1937 4:45 PM El Paso TX American Dam, view from ...

Constuction of American Dam 1937

Note: 5-24-37, 9:40am, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; View from ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note: American Dam, Blasting E.end of downstream dyke, below ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note: 5-24-37, 2:35pm, El Paso, Texas American Dam; View S.W. ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note: 5-24-37, 2:45pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; Erecting ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note: 5-29-37, 12:50pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; View ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note: 5-29-37, 1:00pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; View from ...

American Dam 1937

Note under image: 5-29-37, 1:30pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; ...

American Dam 1937

6-2-37, 2:50pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; Domestic ...

American Dam 1937

Note: 6-2-37, 3:00pm. El Paso, Texas American Dam; units 4&5; ...

American Dam 1937

Note: 6-5-37, 12:45 pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; View ...

Construction of American Dam 1937

Note: 6-5-37, 1:00pm, El Paso, Texas. American Dam; View from ...

American Canal 1937

Note: 6-5-37, 2:40pm, El Paso Texas; American Canal; Sta. 79+60; ...

Construction of American Canal 1937

Note: 6-5-37, 3:00pm, El Paso Texas; American Canal; View S.; ...

home.search_collection