Octavia McGrael Magoffin

Octavia McGrael Magoffin was the wife of Judge Magoffin. Mrs. Magoffin, while not as much in the spotlight as her husband, played a major part in the founding of the city of El Paso. Tourists today still enjoy and appreciate the work that she and her husband put into the Magoffin Home, located just east of Magoffin street and Octavia-which was named for Mrs. Magoffin.

Built in 1875, the nineteen-room adobe home is an example of Territorial style architecture, which combined local materials, such as adobe, and mid-Victorian wood trim. The Magoffin home is composed of three wings, representing three building periods between the early 1870s and the 1880s. Historical photographs of the home's interiors reveal what was probably Mrs. Magoffin’s handiwork-Victorian-era decorations, furnishings and arrangements. The home was purchased jointly by the City of El Paso and the State of Texas in 1976 and made into the Magoffin Home State Historical Site.

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