DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at San Jacinto Plaza tells it — and friend, it's quite a story. Back in 1857, a man named W. T.
Smith sold a piece of property he called the "town of El Paso" for sixty-five hundred dollars. Now that's not nothing, but it's also not a fortune for a whole town. The buyers were a group of five: J.
S. and H. S. Gillette, J.
F. Crosby, J. W.
Morton, and V. St. Vrain.
They turned right around and had the place surveyed by a fellow named Anson Mills. And that map Mills drew — it showed downtown El Paso much as it looks today. Streets, blocks, the layout of a real city.
Right there in the middle of it, those five buyers set aside a public square and donated it to the future city of El Paso, which was incorporated in 1873. That square. That plot of ground.
It had been a haven for weary travelers since Spanish colonial times — long before any of those five men ever signed a deed. Think about what that ground has witnessed. Ox-drawn carts, rumbling and creaking through the dust.
The first U.S. soldiers coming through. Covered wagons rolling west with everything a family owned piled inside. And then — and this is where it gets interesting — Jeff Davis's Camel Corps.
You heard that right. Camels. In Texas.
Stage coaches rattling in. The blast of six-guns. Then the first locomotive whistles splitting the air, and somewhere in the middle of all that noise and motion, law and order slowly, stubbornly emerging.
The years kept piling on. Concerts in that plaza. Political speeches and patriotic ones.
Presidents visiting. Soldiers marching off to wars and, some of them, marching back. The city fathers of 1889 gave it the name "The Plaza" — simple, dignified, it fits.
But the 1902 council made it permanent and official: San Jacinto Plaza. One public square. Donated before the city even existed.
Named twice. Witnessed by everyone who ever passed through El Paso from colonial times to now. Some plots of ground just have a way of becoming the center of things — and this one earned it.
What the marker says
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