By: Lazaro,Elizabeth,Esmer, Kayla, Jordan,Lilly, Caleb, Kathleen, and Robert

4th Graders

Historical monuments of WESLACOOne of Weslaco’s monument is the City Hall. It is Weslaco’s first building.

Old City Hall

New City Hall

The original plaster working model of the statue currently stands in Harlingen, TX at the Marine Military Academy, a private Marine Corps-inspired youth military academy. Harlon Block was raised in Weslaco, and after high school he enrolled in the Marines. Harlon Block was one of the men involved in the second-flag raising there in 1945. Upon his death in Iwo Jima, he was laid to rest at the Marine Military Academy in nearby Harlingen.

Weslaco has a beautiful park named after Harlon Block, with a replica of the monument in our city.

The Villa de Cortez is a Texas registered historic landmark located in Weslaco, Tx. Formerly known as The Cortez Hotel. Its doors first opened in 1928 as one of the Valley’s Finest Hotels. An elegant landmark in the 30’s and 40’s, the Cortez offered all the “modern” conveniences of that era; a telegraph office, post office, coffee shop, barber & beauty shops and a beautiful ballroom for entertainment, celebrations and various events. The attractive four-story structure of Spanish design had seventy-five guest rooms encompassing a beautiful South Texas courtyard.

Years ago Weslaco applied for a grant to preserve old buildings along our main street. We received this grant and many buildings along our main road has been preserved to look authentic to old Weslaco. The Villa de Cortez hotel used to look dumpy, but now its not. Our new City Hall was built in an abandoned grocery store but designed to look like old Weslaco. And our Iwo Jima statue was moved to a more secure area.

What we need to do to our old buildings is to stop vandalizing them. We need to protect these buildings because we can make Weslaco bigger by turning these old buildings into new buildings. And repaint it every time the buildings get vandalized.

By doing this project we learned that our city leaders do work to keep Weslaco beautiful while remembering our past. We didn’t know that about our town.