Casa Blanca

Casa Blanca was two miles southwest of Sandia and twenty miles northeast of Alice in extreme northeastern Jim Wells County. The Casa Blanca or White House was part of a settlement established at the site around 1754 by Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Gallardo, captain of Laredo, who was ordered to find a suitable site for a new settlement. After surveying the country Sánchez selected a site on the banks of Peñitas Creek. A settlement was established there, and the White House was constructed of caliche blocks known as ciares. The house was built in the shape of a square with a courtyard in the center; the well in the courtyard also served as a the end of a tunnel out of the building. Toward the end of the eighteenth century the house was used as a mission.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.