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Photo, Print, Drawing Dorgan House, Castolon, Brewster County, TX Big Bend National Park Rancho Estelle

View 6 images in sequence.
[ Drawings from Survey HABS TX-3527  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS TX-3527  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Dorgan House, Castolon, Brewster County, TX

Other Title

  • Big Bend National Park Rancho Estelle

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Dorgan, Albert W.
  • Sublett, James L.
  • Grand Canyon Company
  • Robinson, A. F.
  • Steele, L. V.
  • Texas Tech University, College of Architecture, sponsor
  • HHM, Inc., contractor
  • Billelo, Joseph, faculty sponsor
  • Hunn, Marshall, delineator
  • Hughes, Karen, delineator
  • Louden, Elizabeth I., researcher
  • Ross, Jennifer R., researcher
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  adobe houses
  • -  stone buildings
  • -  ruins
  • -  fireplaces
  • -  domestic life
  • -  central chimneys
  • -  Texas--Brewster County--Castolon

Latitude / Longitude

  • 29.156977,-103.575471

Notes

  • -  Significance: Dorgan House is situated on top of a mesa above the Rio Grande flood plain approximately four miles west of Castolon Historic District near the mouth of the Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park. Historic records indicate that Dorgan House is located within a 622-acre tract of land that was originally deeded to the Grand Canyon Company, which was owned by Albert W. Dorgan and James Sublett. The company dissolved in 1937 and the land was legally transferred to Albert W. Dorgan. Dorgan designed and built this house sometime between 1937-38. The Dorgan House is culturally significant because it served as the residence for Albert Dorgan, who played an important role in the history of Big Bend. Dorgan was responsible for drafting and submitting a plan to turn a 5,000 mile long tract of land along the US-Mexican border into a US and Mexican International Peace Park. Although his idea initially was not adopted by the Secretary of the Interior, it eventually was implemented. In 1939, Dorgan House was leased to A.F. Robinson, an Alpine businessman who used the property as a guest inn. The business failed in 1941 and in July of the same year, a bill was passed to allocate funds to purchase the privately owned land of the Big Bend Region and designate it as a National Park. Dorgan House is unique in terms of its site, architectural design and construction. The Dorgan House is a one-story, four-room house built out of adobe brick and native uncut stone. The house is a remarkable example of the great room or great hall plan with a large main rectangular room featuring the focal point of the house; a double opening fireplace constructed with local river cobble and faced with a veneer of petrified wood. The fireplace served as a structural support for the center of the roof. Four cottonwood logs (vigas) extended form the fireplace to the four corners of the room. Smaller poles reached from the walls to the main beams to complete the roof structure. Three rooms branched off from the main room serving as a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. The house had no running water. During the time the house was inhabited, the owners retrieved water from a well in the floodplain below the mesa on which Dorgan House sat. A porch spanned across the entire width of the southeast facade. The adobe walls were plastered on the inside and outside with a lime based mud plaster. Another unique feature of the Dorgan House included the use of cured, hand-hewn, squared logs with saw cut dado joints for the arched jambs and lintels of the fenestration. Window sills were constructed from dimensional lumber. The foundation and floor were constructed with concrete. At the time of this documentation Dorgan House was in a ruinous state. The entire roof system was missing except for the remnants of the beam-ends near the top of the fireplace chimney. The fireplace remained intact. Exposure to the elements had caused severe weathering and deterioration to the walls. Only one door and two window frames remained intact on the building's north facade. The remaining doors and window frames were either scattered around the site or had been removed.
  • -  Survey number: HABS TX-3527
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1937-1938 Initial Construction
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 74000280

Medium

  • Measured Drawing(s): 6

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS TX-3527

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • tx1041

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

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For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS TX-3527
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Albert W Dorgan, James L Sublett, Grand Canyon Company, A. F Robinson, L. V Steele, College Of Architecture Texas Tech University, et al. Dorgan House, Castolon, Brewster County, TX. Castolon Brewster County Texas, 1933. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/tx1041/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Dorgan, A. W., Sublett, J. L., Grand Canyon Company, Robinson, A. F., Steele, L. V. [...] Ross, J. R. (1933) Dorgan House, Castolon, Brewster County, TX. Castolon Brewster County Texas, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/tx1041/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al. Dorgan House, Castolon, Brewster County, TX. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/tx1041/>.