A history of Elsa,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Elsa from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Elsa was settled as ranch land before 1800. Anglo-Americans settled in the area in the early 1900s; the town was laid out with the coming of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad in 1927, and incorporated in 1940.
The Ro-Tel brand of tomatoes and green chile, now known as a basic ingredient of Tex-Mex cooking, began in 1943 as a family canning plant in Elsa established by Carl Roetelle.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Elsa’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewPacking broccoli. Elsa, Texas, 1939: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Elsa
See all 1 →Elsa, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Elsa is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Elsa has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Cortez Hotel in Weslaco, 9.3 miles away.
Elsa and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Packing broccoli. Elsa, Texas (1939) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.