Sunset Heights

Henry Trost's 1909 house on Yandell shows how he bent a Midwestern style to the desert. He took the Prairie School manner of Frank Lloyd Wright and added wide overhanging eaves and balconies that shade nearly every window against the heat and sun. Trost called the region Arid America and was among the first architects to design for it on purpose. He worked just as easily in Mission Revival, as in El Paso's Williams Residence of 1905.

What the plaque says

Sunset Heights Originally platted as Satterthwaite's addition to the city of El Paso, Sunset Heights was one of the first planned residential subdivisions in the country. New York native J. Fisher Satterthwaite developed the area, which was named in a newspaper contest. Construction began in 1884 and continued until 1920. A central, diamond-shaped park was the terminus for an electric trolley which ran into the central business district. Recognized as the elite section of town, Sunset Heights offered spectacular views of the Rio Grande and Mexico, and boasted extensive landscaping. It was home to a diverse ethnic population, including wealthy former citizens of Mexico, prominent anglo-Americans, and many Jewish families. A number of homes in the district were designed by noted El Paso architect Henry C. Trost (1860-1933), including his own residence at 1013 W. Yandell. The works of other prominent local architects are also represented here. Most homes here are of brick construction, two to three stories in height. An adobe house at the corner of Prospect Street and Lawton Avenue is the only remaining example of its type in the neighborhood. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 1.5 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 — 2.8 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.
• Franklin Mountains State Park — 12 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

• The University of Texas at El Paso — 0.5 mi
• Captain James W. Magoffin, Major Simeon Hart — 0.5 mi
• El Paso del Rio del Norte — 0.5 mi
• Olga Kohlberg — 0.5 mi