San Elizario Historic Art District - 1501 Main St San Elizario, TX 79849
Tel: (915) 851-0093
Yelp Rating: 4.5/5
Google Rating: 4.6/5
Hours: Opened 10-4pm
Accepts Credit Cards Yes
Wi-Fi Free
Price range: Low
First Friday ArtWalk - Monthly
SEHD Ghost Tour - Monthly
SEHD Free Guided Tours - Monthly Main Street- Free Concert
Series - March to November
SEHD Free Movie On The Wall - February to November
Mission Trail Art Market - March to November
Billy The Kid Breakout Reenactment - During Art Market
Birth of the American Southwest History Conference- April
Oñate Expedition Reenactment & Celebration - April
Rio Grande Festival- April Billy The Kid Festival - June
1876 Billy the Kid Play - June
Viva Mexico Cultural Fiesta - September
San Elceario Chapel Fiesta - September
San Elizario Founders Luncheon - September
Dia de Los Muertos Day of the Dead Festival & Catrina Parade - November
Veterans Day Celebration - November
Christmas Tree Lighting - December
ChristKindleMarket Holiday Market - December
Luminaria Festival & Posada Celebration - December
Texas: San Elizario Historic Town
Twenty-two miles to the southeast of downtown El Paso sits San Elizario, a small border town with a history spanning more than 400 years. In 1598, Don Juan de Oñate passed through along the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road of the Interior), a now historic trail that connected Mexico City with Santa Fe, New Mexico the then northern capital of New Spain. The area became part of the hacienda system established by the Spanish until it was abandoned in 1787. In 1789, Spain built a presidio and mission at San Elizario to protect its land interests from France, and the community was second only to El Paso in size and importance at the time. It remained a part of Mexico until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
The Historic town of San Elizario's centerpiece includes restaurants, gift shops, 18 Historic sites, including the San Elizario Chapel, The Presidio (fort) and the Old El Paso County jail, where legend Billy the Kid once roamed.
Today, this semi-rural farming community remains an important element in the region's rich heritage. The irrigation canals that feed the surrounding farms in many cases follow the alignments of the original acequias, and Glorieta Road leading out of San Elizario toward El Paso follows the El Camino Real. The town center, a National Register Historic District, is roughly bounded by the original presidio site, and includes the San Elizario Presidio Chapel. It is also the start of El Paso’s Mission Trail. Stop in Los Portales to pick up a walking tour brochure of the historic district. Originally built in the 1850s as a home, it now serves as the town’s museum and information center. In its three-block core you can learn about San Elizario’s deep history and explore buildings constructed as early as 1830, many of them still in use today.
While steeped in history, the community is reinventing itself as a vibrant artist colony, with more than 20 working artist studios, including those of Amado Peña, Bert Saldaña, and Alberto Escamilla. Art as business is a concept not lost in this small community. The Mission Trail Art Market operates the third Sunday of the month May through November, and First Friday Art walks are monthly happenings in San Elizario.
San Elizario Historic District!
The only jail Billy the Kid ever broke INTO! On the Mission Trail=Socorro Road=FR258, Eastern suburb of El PasoTX-USA.
Visit San Elizario, Texas
San Elizario, Texas is located just 22 miles southeast of downtown El Paso and 25 minutes from the El Paso International Airpot. El Paso is rated the safest city in the United States. A visit to San Elizario is a must when you are either passing through El Paso or staying for a visit.
History, Community, and Caring People--San Elizario, Texas
San Elizario, Texas, (pop. 9,000) is on the southwestern border with Mexico. Officially a city since just 2014, the place is rich in history. Members of San Elizario's Community Heart & Soul Team weigh in on what they love about where they live.
El Paso Mission Trail, El Paso area, Texas
The El Paso Misson Trail connects the mission churches of Ysleta and Socorro and the Presidio Chapel San Elizario, historic churches established during the period of Spanish colonial rule. The trail follows Highway FM 258, a 9-mile segment of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is the oldest highway in North America.
A group of Spanish colonists left Santa Barbara, Chihuahua in Mexico on an expedition to settle the northern reaches of Spain's territorial claims in 1598. They reached the Rio Grande River near present-day San Elizario on April 30, 1598 where they had a Thanksgiving feast, the first Thanksgiving in what is now the United States, 23 years before the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving.
They followed the Rio Grande into northern New Mexico, extending El Camino to what is now Santa Fe and San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico.
The city that sprang up at a crossing of the Rio Grande has been divided into today's Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. A mission church established there in the 1660s is the oldest building in the El Paso area.
In the 1680s the natives of northern New Mexico revolted, expelling the Spanish south to the El Paso area. They established new settlements along the Rio Grande, along with hundreds of Tigua and Piro Indians who accompanied the retreating Spaniards. The Spanish would retake northern New Mexico in 1692, but thosse new settlements survived.
Ysleta, Socorro and San Elizario began on the south bank of the Rio Grande River, but an 1829 flood resulted in a new channel for the river, putting these communites on the north side of the river. And, as history would have it, now in the present-day United States.
The churches are active Catholic churches. They are often open to visitors, but visitors should dress and conduct themselves accordingly.
The Photos (in order)
F17A0215 - Mission Ysleta del Sur
F17A0229 - Mission Socorro
F17A0231 - Mission Socorro
F17A0257 - Presidio Chapel San Elizario
F17A0244 - Adjacent to the Presidio Chapel San Elizario are surviving buildings of the presidio and surrounding settlement, now the San Elizario Historic District; many of the historic buildings now house shops and restaurants
F17A0247 - San Elizario Historic District
F17A0250 - The Old County Jail in the San Elizario Historic District; tradition holds that in 1876 Billy the Kid helped a friend of his - Melquiadez Segura - escape from this jail
F17A0265 - El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro historical marker; this historic trail crosses the Rio Grande from Mexico at San Elizario
San Elizario Ghost history
Heres a couple of clips that we shot from a Ghost915 tour.
San Eli Aerial
A short flight of The San Elizario Historical District
Fronteras 708: San Elizario History - Al Borrego
Fronteras host Edmundo Resendez discusses with Al Borrego, Director of San Elizario Historic District, about the history of the American Southwest starting in April of 1598.
Reopening of Historic San Elizario Jail
After being closed to the public for over a decade, the County of El Paso was proud to reopen the historic San Elizario jail on April 24, 2013. San Elizario was the first county seat for El Paso County and the jail was constructed and opened in 1853. It remained an active jail throughout the 1940's and saw sporadic use in the following decades.
San Elizario (EPCC Along the Rio Grande project #48)
In San Elizario, we take a tour of history with Ben Sanchez of the San Elizario Genealogical and Historical Society and end up in (or at) jail with archaeological steward Skip Clark. First broadcast April 12, 2002.
San Elizario ISD Inspires
2019 SEISD Convocation
The Pistoleros de San Elizario and Billy the Kid
The re-enactment group The Pistoleros de San Elizario on March 18, 2012, portrayed the day Billy the Kid broke his friend, Melquiades Segura, out of the old El Paso County Jail in San Elizario, Texas, in November 1876.
El Curandero de San Eli
Don Juan is a witch doctor (or medicine man) who lives in the small town of San Elizario outside El Paso, TX.
He uses his energy to help people get well.
Check out the photos and his story at The Bean Juice Dispatches.
San Elizario
The Billy the Kid Sculpture and chapel preservation
Going back to El Paso, Texas 29 years after my divorcePart2
eating wet meat at rudy's BBQ in El Paso texas. Getting gas inside (Burping) but not buying gas from the pumps outside the 49 year old edmontonian considers walking home to his room at the days inn.El Paso is the seat of El Paso County in the U.S. state of Texas and part of the American Southwest. According to the 2006 U.S. Census population estimates, the city had a population of 609,415.[3] It is the sixth-largest city in Texas and the 21st-largest city in the United States, as well as the 7th fastest growing large city in the nation from 2000-2006.[4] Its metropolitan area covers all of El Paso County. The metropolitan area has a population of 736,310.[5]
It stands on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), across the border from Ciudad Juárez.
El Paso is part of the Greater Ciudad Juarez Metropolitan Area with a population of 2,049,648, with Juarez accounting for 2/3 of the Metro population. [6]
El Paso is home to the University of Texas at El Paso (founded in 1914 as The Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy). Fort Bliss, a major United States Army installation, lies to the east and northeast of the city, extending north up to the White Sands Missile Range. The Franklin Mountains extend into El Paso from the north and nearly divide the city into two sections, with downtown connecting the two sections at the south end of the mountain range.
san eli burnout
silverado burnout
Old County Jail Re-Opening El Paso Texas
Commissioner Vince Perez of Precinct 3 in the city of El Paso discusses the historic renovation of The Old County Jail to the community in San Elizario.
Unlimited - the movie
Filming in the San Elizario Historic District. March 2012