Sunset Heights is a historic area in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

; which has existed since the latter part of the 1890s. Many wealthy residents have had their houses and mansions built on this hill. Although some buildings have been renovated to their former glory, many have been neglected and have deteriorated. An organization, the Sunset Heights Improvement Association helps neighbors on a fixed income to manage home maintenance and also sponsors an annual tour.

History

John Fisher Satterthwaite first started purchasing land in the area in the 1880s and by 1885 had built 90 houses. The area was known as the "Satterthwaite Addition" while he owned the land. Satterthwaite lost the land he'd built in 1894. The name, "Sunset Heights," was given to the area in 1901, after the ''

El Paso Herald The ''El Paso Herald-Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in El Paso, Texas, USA. It was the successor to the El Paso Herald, first published in 1881, and the El Paso Post, founded by the E. W. Scripps Company in 1922. The papers merged in 1 ...

'' held a contest for the best name for the neighborhood. Some buildings in Sunset Heights have remnants of tunnels underneath them which may have been started in the early 1900s. Some tunnels, including ones found under

El Paso High School El Paso High School is the oldest operating high school in El Paso, Texas, and is part of the El Paso Independent School District. It serves the west-central section of the city, roughly south and west of the Franklin Mountains and north of Inters ...

, may have been used to smuggle Chinese workers who were banned from the United States because of the

Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...

of 1882. One of the best-known tunnels is underneath the Turtle House in Sunset Heights. During the 1910 Mexican Revolution many affluent Mexicans fled Mexico and settled in Sunset Heights. During the Mexican Revolution, a widely popular Mexican revolutionary leader, Doroteo Arango (as known as

Francisco "Pancho" Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa (,"Villa"
''

In 1915, a house designed by Trost & Trost in Sunset Heights was used as a meeting place for General

Hugh Scott Hugh Doggett Scott Jr. (November 11, 1900 – July 21, 1994) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1959 and in the U.S. Senate, from 195 ...

and Pancho Villa. Until around the time of the Great Depression, Sunset Heights was a fashionable neighborhood. The neighborhood was designated as a historic district in 1984, with the help of John Karr. In 2003, the Sunset Heights Neighborhood Association started giving tours of historic areas and homes called the Sunset Heights Tour.

Cityscape

Sunset Heights is about one mile, and one and half miles across. Because of the historic designation of the neighborhood, residents must adhere to a building code. Blocks in the neighborhood are of different shapes. Houses are designed in various styles including American Foursquare,

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

Classical Revival Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

, Queen Anne and

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In the ...

. Interstate 10 serves as the southern and western border for the neighborhood. Schuster Avenue cuts it off to the north and Mesa Street is the eastern boundary.

Education

Residents are zoned to the

El Paso Independent School District The El Paso Independent School District (or EPISD) is the largest school district serving El Paso, Texas (USA). Originally organized in 1883, it is currently the largest district in the Texas Education Agency's Educational Service Center (ESC) ...

. Mesita Elementary School serves the community with the EC/DC (ex-Villas Elementary) in Sunset Heights. The community is also zoned to Wiggs Middle School and

Notable residents

Victoriano Huerta José Victoriano Huerta Márquez (; 22 December 1854 – 13 January 1916) was a general in the Mexican Federal Army and 39th President of Mexico, who came to power by coup against the democratically elected government of Francisco I. Madero wit ...

Olga Bernstein Kohlberg Olga Bernstein Kohlberg (August 2, 1864,– August 12, 1935) was a History of the Jews in Texas, Jewish Texan philanthropist and founder of the first public kindergarten in Texas. Kohlberg served as president of the Women's Club (El Paso, Texas ...

Beto O'Rourke Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke ( , ; ; born September 26, 1972) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Rourke was the party's nominee for the U.S. Senat ...

Pascual Orozco Pascual Orozco Vázquez, Jr. (in contemporary documents, sometimes spelled "Oroszco") (28 January 1882 – 30 August 1915) was a Mexican revolutionary leader who rose up to support Francisco I. Madero in late 1910 to depose long-time presi ...

* J.H. Higdon *

Henry Trost Trost & Trost Architects & Engineers, often known as Trost & Trost, was an architecture firm based in El Paso, Texas. The firm's chief designer was Henry Charles Trost, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1860. Trost moved from Chicago to Tucson, ...

Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa (, Orozco rebelled in March 1912, both for Madero's continuing failure to enact land reform and because he felt insufficiently rewarded for his role in bringing the new president to power. At the request of Madero's c ...

References

Citations

Sources

External links

A City of Secrets
(2012 Video) {{Authority control Neighborhoods in El Paso, Texas National Register of Historic Places in El Paso County, Texas Historic districts in Texas