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Today, San Antonio is the corporate headquarters of Texas’ favorite grocery chain, H-E-B, the nearly $50 billion, family-owned juggernaut that is just as well known for its disaster recovery, pandemic response and philanthropy as it is for its addictive tortillas, better-than-name-brand store products, and Texas-first produce. And while many may know that the company was founded in Kerrville in 1905 by an enterprising woman named Florence Butt, few people know that H-E-B’s headquarters were once located in the Rio Grande Valley.

Howard got his start in the grocery business by helping his mom run the original Kerrville store at the age of 10. As an adult, Howard took over the company reins and opened the first stores in the Valley in 1928, where he lived in Brownsville for a year, according to the Valley Morning Star newspaper. At the time, however, the company wasn’t exactly known as “H-E-B.” Instead, it was called the Piggly Wiggly-Butt Company. That’s because Howard began expanding his mother’s grocery store idea by buying the Piggly Wiggly stores located in Brownsville, Weslaco and Mercedes, and later, others in McAllen and Pharr.

In its August 14, 1928, edition, the newspaper reported that Howard Butt’s company had 18 stores throughout Texas, with 11 of them in the Valley. By 1931, the company had built a new warehouse in Harlingen in order to “satisfy the demands made upon these popular stores by Valley housewives,” the Star reported. At the same time, the company founder reaffirmed his commitment to the region by moving his family into a massive Italian Renaissance-style home on East Taylor Street in Harlingen.

“While he has some outside interests, the Valley is and always will be his home, says H.E. Butt. … For that reason he has erected a large home in Harlingen, an indication of his desire to make his permanent residence in the Valley,” the Valley Morning Star reported in its January 16, 1931, edition.

Howard, his wife, Mary, and their son, Howard Jr., would go on to live at the Taylor Street house for a decade. It became a place for Harlingen’s high society to meet for social events. And it’s also where the Butts’ philanthropy began to take shape. The couple were deeply religious and attended church regularly, which contributed to their commitment to the community. Howard helped fund the construction of the Harlingen Public Library. Meanwhile, Mary convinced state lawmakers to establish a hospital in Mission for the care of tuberculosis patients. At the time, there was no cure for the deadly and highly contagious lung disease, according to the Star.

But within just a few years, the Butts had begun fending off rumors that their time in the Valley was growing short. In 1936, Butt denied that he was planning to move the grocery chain’s corporate headquarters to Corpus Christi.

“Butt denies Corpus move: Piggly Wiggly Will Remain Here” reads a headline in the Star’s April 28, 1936, edition, just as the company had begun expanding into the Coastal Bend.

There was some truth to the rumors, however, as Howard wound up moving his family — and the H-E-B company headquarters — to Corpus Christi just four years later. In January 1940, Mary Butt’s friends hosted a farewell breakfast for the couple as they readied to leave the Valley. The couple continued to own their home in Harlingen until 1943, but by then, Harlingen’s role as H-E-B’s HQ was long over. Today, the company operates more than 450 stores, including more than 80 in northern Mexico.