The McAllen Heritage Center | Museum of McAllen's History

The McAllen Centennial festivities in 2004 included a festival held at Archer Park in celebration of McAllen's history. Due to it's success, Centennial committee members began discussions towards developing a place for the community to enjoy learning about McAllen's past. (MHC) was formed in early 2006 as a not-for-profit corporation for this purpose with a founding board comprised of a core of Centennial committee members.

The mission was to provide a place to exhibit and to assist in the preservation of sites, works of art, documents, papers, pictures, records and writings of historical, traditional or cultural value. The MHC wants to perpetuate those customs of the people and traditions and folklore, which beautify and enrich the community life of historic McAllen, Texas. One primary goal of the MHC is to cooperate with other persons, groups, organizations and agencies in effecting these objectives and with educating the public, especially our youth with the knowledge of the inherited regional values.

The McAllen Oldtimer's Club made a memorial contribution to MHC on behalf of Helen Snider, a member of the club and also one of the driving forces behind the MHC who passed away before her dream of a McAllen historical museum was realized. Her diligent acquisition and preservation of historical items assisted the MHC in developing a foundation of exhibit materials. The McAllen Centennial Committee also made a generous contribution to the MHC. When MHC founding President, Rick De Julio lost his courageous battle with cancer, his family made significant memorial contributions to MHC. His hard work and dedication towards the preservation of history has left an indelible mark in our City. We are honored that Mrs. Marilyn De Julio currently serves as one of our MHC board members.

Today, the founding board has completed a great deal of the legwork involved in the establishment of MHC as is evident by our beautiful and historic museum located in the "La Placita" building which opened to the public in June 2008. The foundation has been laid and the board is proud of these accomplishments and grateful for the tremendous support received from the City of McAllen and our community!

Current staff members include Mr. Geoffrey Alger who is serving as Museum Curator. Our staff is professional and dedicated and we are fortunate to have their services and constant enthusiasm in helping to meet the goals of the McAllen Heritage Center.

The future of MHC is filled with many new possibilities and opportunities which will result in continued service for our community in honor of our history and historic preservation! We look forward to seeing you at the McAllen Heritage Center.

Standing L-R:  Gracie Silva, Treasurer - Nedra S. Kinerk Ed.D., 1st VP/Secretary, Marilyn De Julio, Spud Brown, 2nd VP
Seated L-R:  Carmen De Leon, Elva M. Cerda, Board President
(not pictured) Danny Boultinghouse


Geoffrey A. Alger Museum Curator	Lydia Mora, Museum Service Assistant