San Jacinto Plaza

Anson Mills, who surveyed the plaza into El Paso's first map, arrived on a Butterfield stage in 1858 after failing out of West Point. He went on to an army career, and his patented woven cartridge belt made him wealthy. Back in El Paso as American boundary commissioner from 1894, he refused to accept the 1911 arbitration that gave the Chamizal tract to Mexico. That year he also finished the Mills Building, then the largest concrete monolith in the world.

What the plaque says

San Jacinto Plaza In 1857, W. T. Smith sold his property which he called the "town of El Paso" for $6500.00. The buyers were J. S. and H. S. Gillette, J. F. Crosby, J. W. Morton and V. St. Vrain; they had it surveyed by Anson Mills. The map showed downtown El Paso much as it is today, including a public square which they donated to the future city of El Paso, Incorporated in 1873. This plot of ground, a haven for the weary traveler, has seen and heard the life of this area march by since Spanish colonial times. It saw rumbling ox-drawn carts, the first U.S. soldiers, covered wagons. Then Jeff Davis's Camel Corps, stage coaches, the blast of six-guns and the first locomotive whistles, and law and order emerging. The years brought concerts, political and patriotic speeches, presidents visiting and marching soldiers of our wars. It was designated "The Plaza" by the 1889 city fathers, but the 1902 council permanently and officially named it San Jacinto Plaza. Presented by The State National Bank of El Paso, Texas 30 July 1965

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 0.7 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.
• Chamizal National Memorial — 2.1 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.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 11 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.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 11 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• El Camino Real (The King's Highway) — steps away
• El Paso's Chinese Community — steps away
• El Paso County, C.S.A. — steps away
• Pioneer Plaza — steps away