National, State & Local Building Industry News 2016: Issue 10
www.elpasobuilders.com
1946 o s a P l E
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Part 1 The early years 1946 to 1959. By Ray Adauto
he history of the El Paso Association of Builders and this desert southwest are intermingled at the belly button. El Paso was founded in 1881 but it was here much longer than that. Historians and archeologist tell us that our beautiful Franklin Mountains have been seen by humanoids since perhaps as far back as 10,000 years or more. We know that there are dinosaur tracks near Mount Cristo Rey, as well as human campsites near the Rio Grande. Funny thing about humans, we like to live in a shelter. Take the time travel back to the end of World War II, and we come about one of the biggest events in home construction, The Baby Boom. Our history in El Paso is just like that of cities across America as returning to normalcy meant having kids, and having kids meant having to find a house for them. There’s not too much written about what happened in the housing world of early El Paso other than three things prior to World War II: South El Paso was the gateway into the area we know as downtown; Ysleta was much bigger and the seat of County Government for much of the early history of this area; and Kern was considered a suburb or the “real” El Paso. After the Great Depression El Paso took over the county seat, and business leaders established that El Paso, not Ysleta, would be the seat of power and growth. Politics, politics and more politics. It was post war El Paso in which a group of men found themselves in need of an organization to deal with the politics here as well as in the state and the nation’s capital. It was needed because the federal
EPAB Celebrates 70 Years Association continues tradition of serving the home building industry and housing the El Paso community
government was beginning to acknowledge that returning service men and women would have some rewards for winning the war in the form of housing loans and government help to get the millions housed. It was a ruckus time as you’ll see in some of the stories in this Outlook where the Feds couldn’t decide to subsidize rents or purchases. Local builders were needing advice and needing direction. Enter the National Association of Home Builders of the United States, now known as the NAHB. It formed to offer guidance at a federal level and encouraged state organization be added to the fraternity. In 1946 the Texas Association of Builders was formed and with it came local associations, including the Home Builders Association of El Paso. It was three businessmen who asked for and were granted rights to join both the NAHB and TAB. John J. Love, Jr. 1166 N. Cotton would be President in 1947. Frank L. O’Brien, 2100 Washington Ave. would be President in 1948. And William J. Elliott of 110 N. Stanton would lead the association in 1949. Up until now our Association didn’t know who the founders were but information obtained by Ray Adauto clearly shows the names and signatures of each. It was on Tuesday, October 8, 1946 that the folks up at NAHB got the application from Love, O’Brien and Elliott and that application was approved. The three men served our community and seemed to have died in their early years. Love, Jr. died at age 53 and had returned to working for Zork Hardware at the time of his death according to news accounts. Elliott move to Central Texas “for better economic conditions” and got involved with politics, being appointed to a six year term on the Texas Real Estate Commission. Unfortunately Elliott died sixteen months later at age 60. O’Brien’s history is a little more hidden but we know he’s buried at the cemetery by the Old Thomason (UMC). The 1950’s showed significant growth in El Paso. So much so that El Paso led San Antonio and Austin in permits. In 1959 we found records that show El Paso in August had 625 permits, to Houston’s 925 and Dallas with 731. San Antonio had 599, while Ft. Worth had 322. Yes it was a different and vibrant El Paso during those years. It is also of interest that our Association reported in that same issue that the P.S.
Board “finds itself with a $500,000 Upper Valley sewer system and no customers…”. Really, does anything change? The records also indicate significant growth year to year. In September of 1957 El Paso builders took out 471 permits, but that grew a year later in September 1958 to 713. The values also increased a whopping $2,000,000.00 more as well. In December of 1959 the Association held its annual Christmas party on Friday December 4 at 7 pm at the Hotel Cortez. Admission was $5 person and everyone was asked to bring a small gift of a wrapped toy valued at a dollar or less. It was a dinner and dance, and oh by the way “bar open for ice…mix. Bring your own or buy a jug at the hotel and share...”
El Paso 1956
You would meet at the El Rancho Motel at 6701 Montana for a general meeting, or the board would meet at the HI Way House on another day at noon. The National convention was held in Chicago in 1960. Attending from the HBA El Paso was Joe Yarbrough (whose name is now a famous eastside avenue) and wife; T.E. Dreckman and wife; Irwin Brand and wife; Ward Halaby and wife; and Mrs. N. R. Dichiara. Get a load of the speakers for that convention: Dr. Norman Vincent Peale; Charles Percy of Bell and Howell (yesterday’s Microsoft), Sen. John McClellan of Arkansas, George Romney of American Motors, a Senator from Texas, Lyndon Johnson, motion picture star Ronald Reagan, and Vice President Richard Nixon. You think they thought the NAHB was important? You bet they did.
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EL PASO BUILDERS A S S O C I AT I O N O F
As we go through archives over the next few months we’ll bring you more information on our pretty great 70 years. We hope that you’ll enjoy reading the history, perhaps remembering some of the folks we will list or tell stories on. Welcome to the next 70 years.