Developed in 1928–1929 by Lee H. Orndorff’s Rim Road Development Company, Rim Road is both a spectacular contour drive and the small subdivision that backs up to it on the northwest. Laid out along the edge of a canyon, Rim Road commands astounding views of central El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Among elite Texan residential thoroughfares, only Ocean Drive in Corpus Christi offers a comparable scenic prospect.
Most Rim Road houses were built in the 1930s, with architect Otto H. Thorman dominating the market for stucco-surfaced, tile-roofed, Spanish Colonial Revival-styled houses. Notable are the Robert F. Thompson House (1937, Mabel C. Welch; 1227 Rim Road), the adobe-built Hugo Briesh House (1939, William G. Wuehrmann; 1215 Rim), and the modernist Leo J. Momsen House (1941; 929 Rim). Opposite Tom Lea Park on the downslope side of the street (where there is parking and a viewing promontory) is Rim Road’s outstanding modern house, the Ralph González Jr. House (1955, Garland & Hilles Architects; 901 Rim), a one- and two-story Usonian design that architecturally capitalizes on its exposed site. Trost and Trost were architects of the Spanish-styled Ervin H. Schwartz House (1925; 821 Rim Rd.), which is followed by the similarly styled sprawling Charles Given House (1929, O. H. Thorman; 815 Rim), the symmetrical A. B. Poe House (1940, Mabel C. Welch; 711 Rim Rd.), and the W. F. Ritter House (1929, O. H. Thorman; 701 Rim Rd.). The houses are notable also for the creativity in the designs of their landscaped front gardens, illustrating the beauty that can be achieved in this arid rocky setting, with a limited range of indigenous plants and very little water.