Skaggs 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 has seen its share of big personalities and bold visions, and Weslaco was no exception. Two names you need to know: C.

Lester Skaggs, born in 1896, and Florence Richardson Skaggs, born in 1884. Prominent bankers, citrus farmers, people of standing in their community. In 1924, they bought fifteen acres right here.

Fifteen acres of South Texas possibility. But they didn't build right away. They sat on that land, watched it, maybe walked it in the early morning when the citrus was coming into bloom.

Then, in 1927, they built. And they didn't build just anything. They brought in R.

Newell Waters, a prolific Weslaco architect, and they said, in effect, give us something worthy of this place. What Waters gave them was a Spanish Colonial Revival style residence. Now, details matter in a house like this.

An off-center entry, the kind of design choice that makes you stop and look twice, make sure you're reading the building right. Metal casement windows catching the Valley light. It was a statement, and it was a home.

That house stayed in the Skaggs family for a long time. Decades rolled by. C.

Lester passed in 1966. Florence lived on, born in 1884, and she outlasted nearly everyone who could remember Weslaco before the boom. She passed in 1983.

And still the house held. It wasn't until 1992 that it finally left the family's hands. By then, people had started to notice what this place really represented.

The house, the native vegetation, the adjoining orchard, all of it together offers a glimpse of Weslaco's emerging prosperity in the late 1920s, a whole era preserved in adobe and citrus and old-growth roots. Conservation and preservation efforts took hold in the early 1990s, and folks decided this story was worth keeping. Some places, you see, don't just hold a family's history.

They hold a town's.

What the marker says

Prominent Weslaco bankers and citrus farmers C. Lester (1896-1966) and Florence Richardson Skaggs (1884-1983) bought 15 acres here in 1924. This Spanish Colonial Revival style residence, built in 1927, was designed for the Skaggses by prolific Weslaco architect R. Newell Waters. It features an off-center entry and metal casement windows. The house remained in the Skaggs family until 1992. The house, native vegetation, and adjoining orchard provide a glimpse of Welaco's emerging prosperity in the late 1920s. This site became the subject of conservation and preservation efforts in the early 1990s. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993.