September 18, 1965
Almost surrounded by a modern housing project, the old Magoffln home still stands at 1120 Magoffin avenue, symbol of a way of life now gone. History clings to its thick adobe walls.
It's historical significance will be recognized at a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 24, when it officially will become a State historical site. A metal marker outside the home will be unveiled by Dr. Eugene 0. Porter, chairman of the County Historical Survey Committee.
BEHIND THE MAGOFFIN home rises the nine-story tower of a new low cost home for the elderly being built by the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso. At the sides are new cottages, part of the housing project.
Tower and cottages are of solid masonry, whereas the Magoffin home has adobe walls three to four feet thick. Its beams and floors were handsawed from timbers laboriously hauled by wagon from the Sacramento Mountains.
The housing project units are on the small side, usually one bedroom apartments. The Magoffin home, occupying a block size site, is more than 100 feet long and has many rooms, including four parlors and sitting rooms. It is built on three sides of a square enclosing a patio.
THE MAGOFFIN home is 90 years old. Brig. Gen. William J. Glasgow, who lives there with Mrs. Glasgow and their daughter, Miss Octavia Glasgow, is 99.
As stated on the marker, the home was built in 1875 by Joseph Magoffin, an outstanding civic and social leader. He was mayor of El Paso for eight years, and also was county judge and customs collector.
One of the items of historical interest inside the old homestead is a painting of James Wiley Magoffin, Joseph's father, done in 1852 by Henry C. Pratt, an artist who accompanied the first boundary commissioner here.
JAMES WILEY MAGOFFIN was a pioneer Santa Fe Trail merchant and diplomat who played a key role in the U.S. seizure of New Mexico in the Mexican War. After the war he built the first Magoffin homestead several blocks east of the present Magoffin home. A marker shows the location at Magoffin avenue and Willow street.
A settlement sprang up around the James Wiley Magoffin home and it was called Magoffinsville. U.S. troops were sheltered there in 1854 and the place was named Ft. Bliss. At that time the Rio Grande flowed nearby, and a subsequent flood damaged the buildings so badly that Ft. Bliss was moved to higher ground, No trace of the early Magoffin home remains.
THE FT. BLISS Replica at the present post gives an idea of what Magoffinsviile looked like.
The El Paso County Historical Society, in making its first posthumous Hall of Honor award, chose James Wiley Magoffin as honoree.
In building his own large home farther west, son Joseph was following his father's example. Both Magoffins were social leaders and liked to entertain.
They were hosts to many distinguished guests. Both helped to lay the foundations for modern El Paso.
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