Alderete-Candelaria House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Alderete-Candelaria House in El Paso County. Now settle in, because this one adobe structure has lived more lives than most entire neighborhoods. The exact building date, nobody knows for certain.

But the best guess puts construction sometime in the 1870s, and the man it was built for was Benigno Alderete, born in 1845 right there in Ysleta, which is now part of El Paso itself. Alderete was not a man who sat still. At various points in his life he served as a Texas Ranger, a county commissioner, and a town mayor.

That is three very different kinds of authority, and one man held all three. The house that rose up around him was a large, L-shaped adobe structure with a courtyard, and originally the property included a corral, an irrigation ditch, and an agricultural field spread out alongside it. Now here is something worth pausing on.

That house was built with the help of the neighboring Tigua Indians, and their construction techniques are visible in the adobe masonry to this day. This wasn't just a transaction. The craftsmanship is right there in the walls, a record of who built it and how.

Alderete passed in 1916, but the family's connection to that structure ran deep and long. His granddaughter Ester married a man named Alex Candelaria, whose family had also been leaders in early El Paso County history. That marriage is how the place came to be known as the Candelaria House.

Two family names, one building, generations of roots in El Paso soil. And then there is what that building became over the years. Hold on, because this list is something.

The house served as an outbuilding for the nearby mission. A temporary courthouse. A gristmill.

A school. A dance hall. A puppet show theatre.

A movie house. A county office building. One L-shaped structure on one piece of land, wearing all those hats one after another, sometimes overlapping, while Alderete's descendants continued living in parts of it all the way until 1969.

The marker puts it plainly: the style and usage of the Alderete-Candelaria House attest to the blending of Spanish, Indian, and American influences in the area. And that cultural mix, it says, is an important part of El Paso County history. Spanish, Indian, American.

Adobe walls. A Ranger turned mayor. A granddaughter's marriage that renamed the whole place.

Courts and cornmeal and puppet shows and movies, all under the same roof. That house didn't just sit in El Paso County history. It held it.

What the marker says

Although the exact building date for this adobe masonry structure is unknown, it appears to have been constructed during the 1870s for Benigno Alderete (1845-1916). Born in Ysleta (now part of El Paso), Alderete served at various times as a Texas Ranger, county commissioner, and town mayor. The residence became known as the Candelaria House after Alderete's granddaughter Ester married Alex Candelaria, whose family also had been leaders in early El Paso County history. The large "L" shaped house and courtyard originally shared the property with a corral, irrigation ditch, and agricultural field. Built with the help of the neighboring Tigua Indians, the house exhibits many examples of their construction techniques. While Alderete's descendants continued to live in parts of the structure until 1969, other parts have been used for a variety of purposes. The house served as an outbuilding for the nearby mission, as a temporary courthouse, gristmill, school, dance hall, puppet show theatre, movie house, and county office building. The style and usage of the Alderete-Candelaria House attest to the blending of Spanish, Indian, and American influences in the area. This cultural mix is an important part of El Paso County history. (1984)