History Around Us: Rio Grande to Franklin Heights Oral Histories

Interview with Rita Faudora

People came out here mostly for their health. Arizona beat El Paso because El Paso didn't take care of it, we didn't have enough doctors. But that lung sanitorium that is now at Southwestern Hospital was THE tuberculosis hospital. But they didn't work at it. Why, you could go uptown to the Alligator Park and they'd be sitting around there, were spittin' all over until there was a law that they couldn't spit on the sidewalk or something. And they slept out in tents in the backyard. And do you know doctors came out here for tuberculosis. My doctors came out here because they were all from the different places in the East, from the South, and they got here because of the climate. You see this was warm. There was no rain, there was no dampness and everything like that. It's the dampness that gives you tuberculosis. You inhale a lot of dampness in your lungs. But the sunshine. Now another thing that would help, especially children, was the mountain air. That's why Dr. Craig opened up a baby sanitorium in Cloudcroft, because babies used to die like flies, especially in South El Paso, their first and second summer. Those were the bad ones. If they passed the second summer, they lived. But lots of times, diarrhea ... milk soured, we didn't have refrigeration. They sold ice by the pounds from door to door. Well, poor people couldn't buy it. And they'd feed them, those that couldn't nurse them; and the heat, the heat was very hard on them.

Our newest exhibition will showcase the extensive history of the Rio Grande district leading to its neighboring area, Franklin Heights. “Rio Grande to Franklin Heights” will highlight the development of the neighborhoods in Central El Paso from the 1910s through the 1930s and will examine topics such as architecture, places of worship, education, working class histories, and waves of gentrification. It will also feature historical figures such as Maestro Abraham Chavez Jr., Judge Burges, Judge Howe, the Lea Family and the Turney Family.

This exhibit is part of an ongoing series that features historic neighborhoods throughout El Paso focusing on race, class, and gender. Previously exhibited neighborhoods include Chihuahuita, Segundo Barrio, Sunset Heights, Manhattan Heights and South Central. “Rio Grande to Franklin Heights” will be on display through May 2025.

Creator: El Paso Museum of History

Area: Central / El Paso High

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History