Memorial Park

Federal Copper's smelter failed beside a much bigger neighbor. In 1887 Robert Safford Towne built the El Paso Smelter on 1,156 acres along the Rio Grande, bought for $3,757, with a 100-foot chimney and 250 workers. In 1899 it merged into the American Smelting and Refining Company, ASARCO. After a 1901 fire it reopened in 1902 with seven new lead furnaces and El Paso's first copper smelter, and its local payroll grew to nearly 900 workers.

What the plaque says

Memorial Park A group of New York and El Paso investors formed the Federal Copper Company in 1899. By 1901 a smelter was in operation at this site, processing ore from Arizona and Mexico. Due to declining copper prices and competition from area companies, the firm was unsuccessful and ceased to exist by 1908. Part of the property was later developed by Leo C. Dessar, former president of Federal Copper Company, as a residential subdivision called Manhattan Heights. In 1912 Dessar sold the real estate development to El Paso dentist Dr. James Brady, the owner of a local construction firm. One year later adjoining land, also part of the original smelter site, was developed by O. C. and J. F. Coles as Castle Heights subdivision. During the economic depression of the 1930s, efforts were begun by the Works Progress Administration to develop public gardens in Memorial Park. The resulting hilltop gardens were completed with the help of the Chamber of Commerce, the city parks department, and the El Paso garden clubs. The houses in the Memorial Park area, most built by 1930, reflect a variety of architectural styles. The exclusive neighborhood has been the home of many prominent El Paso business and professional leaders. (1981) (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chamizal National Memorial — 1.6 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 2.3 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 10 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Franklin Mountains State Park — 11 mi
  Almost 27,000 acres of desert mountains inside El Paso, with the oldest rocks in Texas, more than 100 miles of trail and campsites in the Tom Mays Unit.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon — 0.7 mi
• Henry O. Flipper — 0.7 mi
• John Wesley Hardin — 0.8 mi
• James H. White — 0.9 mi