While thousands pass a building daily that is flanked by trees covering up a humble title: El Paso Laundry and Cleaners Company. At first glance, the building is really not a big deal. I drove passed it several times and was unimpressed by a Laundry Company. The building is right at the end of a walking bridge that extends to Juarez Mexico and surrounded by bus companies that take those who cross into El Paso for the day and surrounded by parking lots for the cars whose owners walked to the other side of the bridge.
Needless to say this close proximity to the International border played a role in the buildings history and in the history of the Mexican War.
The El Paso Laundry and Cleaners Company building was built in 1897. With its flat roof and over-watch of the border, the building became the place where President Taft met Mexican President Porfirio Diaz.
“When Porfirio Diaz crossed the Santa Fe Bridge and arrived at the front of the Laundry to meet President Taft, he was welcomed by enthusiastic crowds of people and received a twenty-one gun salute.” (prezi.com)
Then two years later when Poncho Villa invaded Juarez, and “fighting of the Mexican Revolution moved north to the border, the Laundry building’s large flat roof served as an observation deck, providing journalists and spectators sweeping views of the fighting across the river, especially during the Battle of Ciudad Juárez on May 10, 1911.” (epcc.libguides.com)
This building teaches all of us that history and significance are found everywhere even the humble building deep inside the inner city.
(Photo: May 3, 2015 by Keith Andrews)
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