The Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum located close to the Valley International Airport in Harlingen is well worth the stop. The historical displays are excellent and the day we were there the traveling exhibit "Blending the Old and the New Quilts" by Paul D Pilgrim was on display. All this at no charge....
As you enter the museum there a nice display showing the highlights of Lon C Hill's contributions to Harlingen. It had been named "Rattlesnake Junction" and "6-Shooter Junction", but Hill named it "Harlingen" in honor of his friend and railroad builder Uriah Lott, was from Harlingen, Holland.
Lon C Hill was a larger than life figure...he was a lawyer, store keeper, hotel owner, farmer, sugar mill owner, developer, builder, brick kiln owner, canal builder, statesman, pioneer and visionary. He began his home construction in 1904. Here Hill raised 8 children after the deaths of his wife Eustacia and a son of typhoid fever. The home was moved to the museum complex in 1989.
In 1923 Ida Gilbert and Marie Yeager(a nurse from Chicago) opened the first hospital in Harlingen. It included 7 patient rooms, a surgery room, reception and storage rooms. The building was moved to the museum complex in 1978.
The Paso Real Stagecoach Inn was built in the 1850's on the north bank of the Arroyo Colorado near Rio Hondo. It served as the way station for the stagecoach from Alice to Brownsville. Rooms were 35-50 cents a night. Meals consisted of jerked beef, beans, tortillas & milk. The Inn served as a receiving point for mail for Harlingen until 1904, when the arrival of the railroad made the station obsolete. In 1976 students from TSTC constructed this replica of the Inn in the courtyard of the museum, using salvaged wood from the original Inn.
