Magoffin Homestead
National Register of Historic Places

Magoffin Homestead

El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Listed
March 30, 1971
Type
Building
Period
Modern
Ref No.
71000931

About this property

Magoffin Home is located in El Paso, Texas. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The surrounding area was declared the Magoffin Historic District on February 19, 1985. The home is now known as the Magoffin Home State Historic Site under the authority of the Texas Historical Commission. The Magoffin Home, built in 1875, is a combination of the local adobe style combined with Greek revival details and is an example of the Territorial style. The thick adobe walls keep the house cool in the summer heat and warm in the winter. The house consists of three wings, each built at a different time, the last being built in the 1880s as the center that connected the two previous wings. There are 19 rooms, 8 fireplaces, and 14-foot (4.3 m) ceilings. Members of the family lived in it for 109 years, and many of the original furnishings are still displayed, including a 11.5-foot-tall (3.5 m) half-tester bed. Built by pioneer Joseph Magoffin, who lived there with his wife, Octavia (MacGreal) until their deaths. They had two children, James (Jim) and Josephine. James married Anne Buford and had four children, Anne, James, Mary and Jim. After James died in 1913 from appendicitis, Anne continued to care for her father-in-law at the homestead until his death in September, 1923. Josephine married William J. Glasgow, a future Brigadier General in an extravaganza newspapers hailed as the 'wedding of the century'. After the death of Joseph, Josephine inherited the house and James' family settled in Los Angeles where Anne lived until her death in 1962. The last member of the family to live in the home was Octavia Magoffin Glasgow, Josephine's daughter, who died in 1986. After retiring from the military, the Glasgows returned to El Paso, Texas and remodeled the interior of the home, installing gas heat and electrical service, updating plumbing, and modernizing the kitchen. The remodeling included plastering directly over her mother's Victorian wallpapers and removing the canvas ceilings (mantas). In 1976, the home was sold to the City and State, although Joseph's granddaughter, Octavia Magoffin Glasgow, retained lifetime tenancy and continued to live in the home until her death in 1986. In 1977–1978, the house was restored by historic preservationist Eugene George, a professor of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. The homestead is located at 1120 Magoffin Ave. in El Paso, Texas and is currently jointly owned by the City of El Paso and the State of Texas. It has been maintained by the Texas Historical Commission since 2007 when authority of that agency was transferred from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department which had overseen the historic site since 1976. There is a historical marker. The Casa Magoffin Companeros (Friends of the Magoffin Home) host several annual events at the home, including kids camps and classes in the summer and a Holiday Open House in December.

Location

1120 Magoffin Ave.
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
31.76205, -106.47332

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

House at 912 Magoffin Avenue
Pre Contact
0.3 mi
Toltec Club
Civil War
0.4 mi
1800's Mexican Consulate
Civil War
0.6 mi
El Paso US Courthouse
Industrial
0.6 mi
El Paso Natural Gas Company (Blue Flame) Building
Modern
0.8 mi

Nearby Battles

Killing of John Wesley Hardin, El Paso TX
1895Frontier
0.7 mi
Pueblo Revolt – Otermín's Retreat to El Paso 1680
1680Colonial
0.7 mi
Battle of El Paso del Norte
1846Mexican-American War
0.8 mi
El Paso Gunfight — Dallas Stoudenmire Four Dead in Five Seconds
1881Frontier
0.8 mi

Questions about this property

When was Magoffin Homestead listed on the National Register?

Magoffin Homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 1971.

What type of historic resource is Magoffin Homestead?

Magoffin Homestead is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Magoffin Homestead?

The period of significance for Magoffin Homestead is recorded as the modern era, specifically around 1985.

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