West Texas Heritage Center

The grand opening of the West Texas Heritage Center, located at 201 E San Antonio Ave in downtown El Paso, will take place on Thursday, May 29, 2025 with a ribbon cutting ceremony at noon! This event is fee and open to the public.

Made possible in part by a grant from El Paso County, the Center will display rotating exhibits highlighting El Paso and West Texas’ unique cultural heritage. It will also serve as the starting point for historical tours, office and retail space, and a hub for historic preservation inquiries and heritage tourism information. This initiative is being overseen by our West Texas Program Officer, Victor Hurtado.

We intend to showcase 2-3 exhibits per year at the Center. The first exhibit, Adobe at the Pass: Documenting the Mission Valley in 1936, is currently on view until August 30th. This bilingual exhibit features large-format black and white photographs of iconic adobe structures in El Paso County taken by architect Marvin Eickenroht in 1936 as part of the New Deal-era Historic American Buildings Survey program. It also explores the history, significance, and future of adobe construction in West Texas. Tentative hours of operation are10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

A subsequent exhibit will focus on high-rise architecture in El Paso, featuring several iconic downtown skyscrapers. These exhibits and related events, including hands-on preservation training workshops, are just the first of many exciting programs that Preservation Texas is planning for the West Texas Heritage Center. Stay tuned for more!