Dunlap House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, the Rio Grande Valley had no shortage of men with big plans and bigger ambitions, and W.E. Stewart was cut from that cloth.

In 1912, Stewart, a Valley developer, started putting up an adobe brick and stucco residence. He had the vision, he had the contractor, a man named W.E. Strickland, and he had the momentum.

But here's the thing about big plans. Sometimes they change before the paint dries. Before that house was even finished, Stewart sold it.

Sold it to his own employee, a fellow by the name of Bailey H. Dunlap, born in 1886, originally out of Illinois. Now you might think that's where the story slows down.

You would be wrong. Dunlap didn't just move into a house. He moved into a community, and he moved in like a man with somewhere to be.

He started La Feria's first bank, the Cameron County Bank. He worked real estate dealings throughout the Valley. And in 1915, when La Feria needed its very first mayor, the town turned to Bailey H.

Dunlap. He served in that role and stayed active in civic and religious organizations for years to come. The house itself kept changin too.

In the 1920s and 1930s, W.E. Strickland, the same contractor who'd been brought in at the start, came back and enlarged and remodeled the structure. The man who built it came back to make it bigger.

Dunlap lived until 1957, and that house on the La Feria landscape stood as a quiet record of one unfinished sale that turned into something no one quite planned for.

What the marker says

Rio Grande Valley developer W.E. Stewart began construction of this adobe brick and stucco residence in 1912. Before it was completed, he sold the house to his employee Bailey H. Dunlap (1886-1957), a native of Illinois. Dunlap started La Feria's first bank, the Cameron County Bank, and was involved in real estate dealings throughout the valley. He served as La Feria's first mayor in 1915 and participated in numerous civic and religious organizations. In the 1920 and 1930s, the structure was enlarged and remodeled by W.E. Strickland, the original contractor.