Memorial Park

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Memorial Park, up there in El Paso County. Sit back and let me walk you through it. Now, 1899 is where this story begins, and it begins the way a lot of Texas stories do: with investors and a big idea.

A group of New York and El Paso investors pooled their ambitions and formed something called the Federal Copper Company. Two years later, by 1901, a smelter was up and running right on this very site, pulling in ore from Arizona and Mexico and doing what smelters do. But here is where the story takes a turn, the way copper prices and competition have a way of doing.

Between declining prices and pressure from other companies in the area, the Federal Copper Company never quite found its footing. By 1908, the firm had ceased to exist entirely. Just gone.

The smelter, the investors, the big idea, all of it. Now, you might think that's the end of the tale. It is not.

A man named Leo C. Dessar, who had been the president of that very same Federal Copper Company, looked at the property and saw something different. He developed part of it into a residential subdivision and called it Manhattan Heights.

Whether that name carried a little New York nostalgia is not for me to say, but there it is. In 1912, Dessar sold that real estate development to an El Paso dentist by the name of Dr. James Brady, who also happened to own a local construction firm.

One year after that, in 1913, adjoining land, also part of the original smelter site, was taken up by O. C. and J. F.

Coles, who developed it as the Castle Heights subdivision. So within just a few years, a defunct copper operation had been carved into two separate neighborhoods. The houses in the Memorial Park area, most of them built by 1930, reflect a whole variety of architectural styles.

And over the years, the exclusive neighborhood became home to many of El Paso's prominent business and professional leaders. Then came the 1930s, and the economic depression settled in over the country like a long, hard drought. But even then, something was stirring on that hilltop.

The Works Progress Administration stepped in and began efforts to develop public gardens in Memorial Park. Those hilltop gardens were eventually completed with help from the Chamber of Commerce, the city parks department, and the El Paso garden clubs. So what started as a copper smelter in 1899, abandoned by 1908, became by the 1930s a neighborhood with gardens on the hill and prominent families in the houses below.

That old smelter site never did produce the fortune those investors imagined. But what grew in its place has lasted a good while longer.

What the marker says

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)