Raymondville, Texas: Gateway to Rio Grande Valley

Our last stop on the Texas Coast tour was Raymondville, Texas. But, you say, it's not on the Texas Coast. You would be correct. It is, however, on the way home and, it's the county seat of Willacy County.

 In 1904, Edward Burleson Raymond organized the Raymond Town and Improvement Company. He was a ranchers who owned large tracks of land in what was then Cameron county. He created the company and the resulting town along the railway of the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway. This ensured that his town would become a shipping point for cattle and farm products and potentially a trade hub for surrounding ranches.

The railway provided low-cost round trip excursions for land seekers. Raymond sold town lots. By 1914, there were 350 people living there along with four general stores, a bank, a newspaper, a hotel and a cotton gin. It was primarily an agricultural town. They raised sorghum, cotton, citrus fruit and veggies. Unfortunately, the train depot was torn down long ago.

In 1911, Willacy County was carved out of Cameron County and the small town of Sarita was named the seat. The courthouse was built in 1912. Then in 1921, the present-day boundaries were set for Willacy county. Sarita was now in Kenedy County and Raymondville was declared the county seat. Now they needed a new courthouse. This one was completed in 1923.

This is the Willacy County Historical Museum (not open on a Monday) but it used to be High School. It was built in 1924. Inside is the history of the town and stories of families that lived here. I'm sorry I missed that.

This is the Lyric Theatre in Raymondville, TX, located on Hidalgo Ave, is a historic venue renovated in 2017 that currently operates as a movie theater. It was originally built around 1875 as a general store before becoming a theatre in the 1930s, featuring a notable 1950s marquee

Raymondville is known as the Gateway to the Rio Grande Valley due to its location at the northern edge of the Rio Grande Valley Region. In order to get down there, you have to go through Raymondville. And if you want to leave, you go through the Border Patrol check point.

It’s also known as Prisonville USA. Yikes! This is because of its reliance on correctional facilities and detention center. I read an article that said there was a fire in the Willacy County Correction Center when the prisoners protested the conditions inside the facility. They had to close the facility leaving them short on revenue and huge debt on unpaid bonds. Then in 2024, they engaged once more with the crappy company that ran the original facility to open an ICE detention center named El Valle. That couldn’t be good. I guess they needed the business? That was a little disappointing to discover.

There are about 10K people that live in Raymondville, most of whom are of Hispanic descent. With the ICE detention center in the neighborhood, that has to make people nervous. Most people work for the Raymondville ISD, the Valley Telephone Co-op and then the corrections company that runs the detention center and the jail. They have an H-E-B but no Walmart. They have a handful of national fast food chains but no national chain restaurants.

I'm glad that we stopped and I would have loved to visit the museum but I wasn't terribly impressed with Raymondville. It didn't have that comfortable small-town vibe that some of the other places we visited did. But, hey, don't take my word for it. If you're in the area, check it out!