Samuel W. Brooks was born in Pennsylvania but spent much of his childhood in Ohio. In the early 1850s he moved to New Orleans where he opened a lumber business and became a builder and architect. In 1863 he moved to Matamoros, Mexico (just across the Rio Grande River) and lived there before settling in Brownsville in 1878. Brooks had a significant impact on Brownsville's architectural landscape. He served eight terms as city engineer and designed several buildings including Fort Brown Hospital, the <a href="https://theclio.com/entry/115996" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Browne-Wagner House</a>, the first Cameron County Courthouse, and several others that were demolished. Brooks also designed the courthouses in Hidalgo and Starr Counties, and levees along the river in Brownsville at Fort Brown and Hidalgo. His house was significant in that it represented a shift in residential architecture. Up that point, homes in Brownsville tended to be designed following Mexican or outdated American styles. Brook's house, therefore, with its I-plan and use of decorative woodwork, was considered modern for the time. After he died in 1903, his wife and her son and daughter-in law (she was previously married) continued to live in the house. Family descendants owned the house until 1951 when the Immaculate Conception Church bought the property to build a school. As a result, the house was relocated five blocks away. By the 1970s, that area had declined and the house fell into disrepair. It was moved again to is current location in 1987 and restored.

The Samuel W. Brooks House was built by its namesake in 1888. It is probably the oldest I-plan wood-frame house in Brownsville.

National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Samuel W. Brooks House

More Info

This attractive home was once the residence of Brownsville's foremost architect during the late 1800s, Samuel Wallace Brooks (1829-1903). The house, which Brooks designed and built in 1888, is likely the last I-plan wood-frame homes still standing in the city. It features a number of interesting elements including a veranda on the first floor with decorative designs and a small balcony on the second floor above the veranda. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the home is now the location of a law office.

Samuel W. Brooks House

This trail begins near the border with stops at the Neale House, Fort Brown, and the Brownsville Heritage Museum. The tour moves through the downtown area with Market Square, the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, several government buildings, and multiple historic homes and buildings before concluding at the city's museum district. There are numerous other Clio entries throughout the city that are a short drive from this tour. 

William Neale ran away from home at age thirteen and found himself as a cabin boy on an English ship that had secretly been sold to the Mexican government. The ship ended up shelling the Spanish castle of San Juan de Ulloa in 1821 guarding the harbor of Vera Cruz in Mexico. Neale worked for a British mining company in Mexico before returning to England in 1826; he married Una Rutland in 1827 and the couple had fourteen children. The couple moved to Matomoros, Mexico in 1834 and lived there for seven years. Neale established a stage route from the town to Bagdad, the Mexican port at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and later moved to Bagdad. He discontinued the stage line in 1855, since steamships made the same journey. Neale's next enterprise was a mercantile business at Santa Maria, twenty-five miles upriver from what is now Brownsville. He moved to Brownsville by 1856. A son of William Neale named William Peter Neale was shot and killed in the house during a raid in 1859 by a Mexican General, Juan N. Cortina. During the Civil War, Neale was a Confederate second lieutenant in the Texas Infantry and a captain in the home guard at Fort Brown. Union troops occupied Brownsville for part of the Civil War and reportedly dismantled part of the Neale House for lumber to build barracks. In his April 1897 obituary, the 89-year-old Neale was heralded as one of the oldest inhabitants of Brownsville. He was survived by one daughter, Mrs. Louis Cowen, and, in Brownsville, twenty-one grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The 1885 Sanborn map of town is one of the earliest drawings of the house. The house tract had three outbuildings in 1885. It is thought that the house originally had a breezeway between the two front rooms which was later enclosed. The house style is more like the frame and double log houses built by early Anglo-American settlers in Texas than the indigenous border style. The lumber in the house was not native to the area and the construction was tongue-and-groove. The one-story wood frame house was divided into three residences according to the 1894 Sanborn map. By 1906, the house was drawn on the Sanborn map as one structure with a long rectangular dogleg addition on the right rear. The house has eight bays along the front: three doors and five windows, behind a full-width porch. The house is supported by concrete piers and has brick chimneys near each gable end. To enable the Neale House to be moved onto city property, the Brownsville Art League conveyed the house by deed to the City of Brownsville. The city subsequently leased the house to the art league to establish a museum and art gallery. The front porch and four fireplaces were sketched by Ruth McGonigle before the 1950 move so that they could be taken apart and reassembled at the new site. The rear side of the house collapsed during the move and needed to be rebuilt; local building supply companies donated all of the materials for the project. After the move, a number of changes were made in the house, including removal of some of the multi-layered wallpaper and adding new wall coverings. A kitchen and restroom were added as well as an art studio with clerestory windows and supply closets. The house exterior was painted white with green shutters; the iron bars across the windows were painted Black. A modern museum building was constructed north of the house and the old wooden, octagonal bandstand from Fort Brown stands south of the house.

The Neale House is said to be the oldest frame house surviving in Brownsville, dating to sometime in the 1860s or earlier. It originally stood at 625 East 14th St. but was moved to this location on Neale Road in 1950 by the Brownsville Art League. This location was once part of Fort Brown. The builder of the home was an Englishman named William A. Neale (1807-1897). Neale was a local businessman, Civil War veteran, and served two terms as mayor of Brownsville, from 1858-1859 and 1866-1867. Neale bought the two lots where the house was to be built in the original town of Brownsville in 1850 from Samuel Belden. The house stayed in the Neale family until 1950 when a direct descendant, Mrs. Mamie del Valle, gave the house to the Brownsville Art League.



Neale House

The Stillman House Museum and the Brownsville Heritage Museum on E. Washington Street make up the Brownsville Heritage Complex. Both have been renovated and offer visitors a glimpse into Brownsville’s past. One admission fee allows entry into both and costs $6 for adults, $4 for seniors, and $2 for students age 6 and up. The museums are members of the Blue Star program, offering free admission to active duty military members and their families from Memorial Day to Labor Day. A combined day pass to both museums plus the Historic Brownsville Museum/ Mary Yturria Education Center (641 E. Madison Street, a Clio entry) is available from the BHA for $10 for adults, $6 for seniors, and $3 for students. BHA also offers one-hour guided tours of each of these three museums as well as the Old City Cemetery (also a Clio entry). When the Stillman House was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1979, the house was already an historic house museum operated by the BHA. The building was owned by the City of Brownsville and a caretaker, Kino Camarillo, lived in the associated carriage house beginning in the 1940s and was interviewed on the house's history. The Stillman House was on two lots in the original townsite of Brownsville, owned by Charles Stillman and Samuel A. Belden. The house is said to have been built of locally made brick with slate shingles for the roof imported from New England. During restoration of the home, the inscription "John Richardson Curry 1850" was found beneath a panel molding for a doorway; he would have been the building's carpenter. Charles Stillman's son, James Jewett Stillman, was reportedly born in the house on June 9, 1850. The lots were bought and sold multiple times in the 1850s by attorneys associated with the Stillman businesses, until the house and lots were purchased in 1858 by Manuel Travino. Travino paid $4,500 for the property and his family retained ownership for the next one hundred years, although he never occupied the house. Manuel Travino served as the Mexican consul in Brownsville in the 1860s, as did his son, Abelardo Trevino, in the 1920s. The house was the home of Abelardo Trevino, who lived there until his death in 1955. From the mid-1940s to mid-1950s, Kino Camarillo (the caretaker for decades) operated a second-hand clothing and shoe repair shop in the carriage house. A Stillman descendant, Chauncey Stillman, purchased the property from the Travino family in 1958 for $50,000. The house was restored in the late 1950s by the Brownsville Historical Association and local and New York City architects at a cost of $85,000. The Stillman family donated furnishings and family items for the restoration. The kitchen, stable, and carriage house were deemed original to the house but the two rear rooms were likely added by the Trevino family in the 1910s and 1920s; one rear room connects to the kitchen. The brick walkway which originally connected the central hallway of the house to the detached kitchen outbuilding was found within the house during restoration. The property was deeded to the City of Brownsville in 1962.

The Stillman House Museum has been open since the 1960s as a historic house museum after restoration. The Heritage Museum next door opened in 2002 and offers photo displays, exhibits, and interactive displays; it also houses La Tienda Gift Shop and the administrative offices of the Brownsville Historical Association (BHA). The Greek Revival style Stillman House was built circa 1850 and is one of the oldest residences in Brownsville. It was built as the home of Charles Stillman, a wealthy businessman who was one of two owners of the original townsite of nearly 5,000 acres in 1848, along with Samuel A. Belden. The house was owned by the Trevino family from 1858 to 1958 and was home of the Mayor of Brownsville, Thomas Carson, in the 1890s.

Stillman House and Brownsville Heritage Museum

The brick Market building was flanked along the long sides by new interior roadways added in the 1850s. Originally topped by a hipped roof and a central cupola, the second story was damaged by a hurricane in 1867 and replaced by a gable roof covering attic space used for the city offices. The fountain between the main entrance and E. 12th Street dates to 1912 and is named as a memorial to Major Jacob Brown, the city's namesake, who died in 1846 defending Fort Brown. The three-tiered pedestaled bronze fountain was installed by the Civic League. If you were looking to buy milk in Brownsville in 1882, you would bring your own bucket to the market and the one official dairyman would milk a cow or goat into the bucket. It was done this way by city ordinance, and the lucky dairyman paid a fee of ten cents per month for each cow milked and two cents per month for each goat. The City Council also ruled in 1882 that vegetables brought into Brownsville to be sold had to be brought to the City Market if it was during hours the market was open; peddling on the streets was legal only on off hours. By 1898, fees were charged on dozens of items sold at the market; some examples: one cent for a dozen eggs or a gallon of milk, two cents per bushel of potatoes or onions, and five cents for one hundred oranges or oysters. The market was popular and crowded by the mid-1920s and in need of more room. A 1926 newspaper article said that people couldn't reach the vegetable stalls without bumping into one another or knocking things over. It was suggested that the city erect another building for the fire department and have the market expand into the fire department building. The 1948 - 1949 phase of modernization of the building included building a new domed tower entrance facing E. 12th Street. The tower has Spanish Mission style influences with a double door below a quadrifolio diamante window. Free-standing tiled roof canopies were added in 1985 parallel to the interior roadways but were demolished when a new bus terminal elsewhere in town was occupied in 2012. The interior streets were closed to traffic and made into pedestrian spaces in 2017 - 2018, resurfaced with pavers. The "Brownsville City Hall and Market House" building is within the Central Brownsville Historic District, NRHP-listed in 2019. The building is individually listed and significant for being the location of municipal government from 1852 to 2002 and is the oldest combined city hall and market house in Texas. It also is significant in the town's commercial history and for its architectural evolution in regional styles.

The core of the Market building in the center of Market Square was built 1850 - 1852, with multiple arcaded stalls on the ground floor selling fresh fruits and vegetables and City of Brownsville offices on the second floor. A two-story fire department building was built in 1908 - 1909 free-standing on the E. 11th Street (northwest) side of Market Square. The 1850s building was gutted in 1912, the second floor office space above the market stalls was reconstructed, and a two-story extension was built on the front of the building, facing E. 12th Street (southeast side). The first floor stalls were walled off from the outdoors in 1940. In 1948 - 1949 the fire department building was incorporated into the newly-stuccoed Market building. The city bus station occupied the building by the 1980s. Market Square was leased to the Brownsville Historical Association (BHA) in 2009. The BHA Research Center within the building contains a wide range of photographs and documents on local history.

Market Square Event Hall/ Research Center

Four OMI priests from Canada arrived in Brownsville in 1849. Their initially lived in an old barn and celebrated mass in an unused store before building a small chapel in June 1850. By 1856, the chapel had become too small for the congregation and as a result, plans were made to build the current church. As noted above, Father Pierre Y. Keralum, who was a native of France, designed it. Born in 1817, Keralum became an architect and cabinetmaker as a young man. He joined the seminary when he was 28 and ordained into the OMI in 1852. He was sent to Texas shortly thereafter. He designed a number of churches in the region in the Gothic style, and was apparently well liked, earning the nickname "Padre Pedrito." Tragically, in 1872 he died of exposure near the city of Mercedes after becoming lost. No one knew what happened to him until 1882 when his remains were found.Immaculate Conception was completed on June 12, 1859. Whenever there was turmoil in Mexico, Mexican priests often sought refuge in the church. Another notable fact about the church is that the rectory, which was built in 1861, became the first Oblate seminary in the country (specifically, it was located on the second floor of the building). For a brief time in 1874, the church was designated as a cathedral when a bishop lived at the church for eight months. It wasn't until 1956 that the church became a cathedral once again.

Built in 1859, Immaculate Conception Cathedral is a historic Catholic church located in the heart of Brownsville. It is notable for its elegant Gothic architecture and for the man who designed it, Father Pierre Y. Keralum, who was a trained architect. The church is also a symbol for the development of the Catholicism in Texas. It was built just ten years after Brownsville was established, and was the location of the first permanent settlement in the country of a Catholic order called the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). The church remains an active Catholic parish and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Immaculate Conception Cathedral

Cameron County was organized in 1848 by the Texas Legislature and was carved out of Nueces County. The county was named for a Scottish-born Texan soldier, Ewen Cameron, who was shot and killed in 1843 on order of Mexican General Santa Anna, after entering Mexico to defend San Antonio. Brownsville was elected the county seat on August 7th 1848. Cross Construction Company was the contractor for the new courthouse for Cameron County in 1912. This building replaced the first permanent county courthouse which stood at East Twelfth and Jefferson Street since 1866. The prior courthouse, a two-story brick building, became a Masonic Temple. The new courthouse occupies the center of the block, surrounded by landscaping and parking areas. The footprint of about 100 by 120 feet encloses three stories over a raised basement. Four matching entrances are in the center of each of the structure's facades. The entrances are ornamented with columns topped with Corinthian capitals, a frieze inscribed "CAMERON COUNTY COURTHOUSE" and a parapet bearing a terra cotta crest with the date "1912." The pilasters also are topped by Corinthian capitals. The interior is even more impressive than the exterior. A three-story rotunda is topped by a dome of stained glass; lavish plaster ornamentation is evident on walls and ceilings. The courthouse was remodeled in 1965 by a local company, Bowman, Swanson and Heister. The former two-story courtroom on the building's second floor was modified to create office space, a reception area and a conference room on the third floor. A jury room and restrooms were added to the courtroom on the second floor. The remainder of the third floor was remodeled in 1968 and became a county court of law, public hearing room, judge's chamber, coffee bar, attorney's conference room and jury room. The building was renovated again when it was city offices, in 2006; the $12 million project focused mainly on the interior. The exterior was restored in 2018 at a cost of around $3 million, with damaged terra cotta replaced over windows, entrances, and the decorative molding along the top of the building. The Old Cameron County Courthouse is within the Downtown Brownsville National Register Historic District, roughly bounded by E. Charles Street, E. 14th Street, E. Monroe Street, and E. 10th Street.

The Old Cameron County Courthouse was designed by a prominent San Antonio architect, Atlee B. Ayres, in 1912. Ayres became the State Architect of Texas in 1915. The Classical Revival style building takes up twelve lots within the original boundaries of the town of Brownsville. The massive brown brick and terra cotta building on a concrete foundation cost a quarter of a million dollars. A new courthouse was built in 1981 and this building became county offices. The building was renamed the Dancy Building after Oscar C. Dancy (1879-1971), a county judge who served within this building from 1921 to 1971 and advocated for the structure to be built. The building was listed in the National Register in 1980 and was recognized as a Texas Historic Landmark in 2000. 

Old Cameron County Courthouse

Cameron County, the southernmost county in Texas, was created from Nueces County on February 2, 1848, with Santa Rita as its temporary seat. Shortly, however, Brownsville was named the seat of county government. Records of the second county court session in Brownsville on January 15, 1849 stated that “the Chief Justice be authorized to advertise inviting proposals with plans for the building of a jail” that was twenty-four-feet by thirty-two-feet in dimension. Early records also indicate that facilities were rented from both B. F. Hickman and I. B. Bigelow, the county’s Chief Justice. Though specifications and plans for a jail were proposed by J. G. Browne, these were “held over” on August 20, 1849. The county commissioners evidently changed their initial plans to purchase land and build a jail.  The town’s first ordinances were passed on May 4, 1850, and the police force was organized on February 7, 1853, creating a more urgent need for a jail. In December 1852, the county signed a contract with Daniel Wolf to purchase the building already being rented for a jail. Wolf was to thoroughly repair the current building and, additionally, build a wooden frame building to the rear of the lot, the latter which was utilized as the future Cameron County Courthouse. The buildings stood at the corner of Levee and Tenth Streets, and brick walls enclosed the jail. In writing of an 1855 jail escape, author Henry Ferguson noted that “it was practically impossible to keep any prisoner who desired to escape in the fragile shack that served as a jail”. Despite this, the building served the county for some thirty years, though it was pronounced unfit and only partially floored in 1860. Men and women were housed together and shackled to the floor at night to prevent escape.  The 1912-1913 jail and courthouse buildings were both constructed in response to new state legislation. A law passed in 1881 allowed counties to sell bonds for courthouse construction. In addition, the 1876 state constitution and subsequent legislation required counties to provide detention facilities that were secure and humane. On October 11, 1911, Cameron County voters approved $200,000 in courthouse and jail bonds to construct the new facilities. County Commissioners advertised for sites for the courthouse and jail, and separate parcels were selected and purchased. The jail site, at the corner of Van Buren and 12th Street, was bought from the New York and Brownsville Improvement Company for $1,500. A separate site was selected for the courthouse at 1150 East Madison.   It was still common in the early twentieth century for jails to occupy the top floors of courthouses, and Willard Robinson, in his book, The People’s Architect: Texas Courthouses, Jails and Municipal Buildings, states “new jail buildings as separate entities were not numerous during this era”. When separate, Robinson describes the typical, late nineteenth century Texas jail as a two- or three-story cube containing sheriff’s quarters, detention blocks, and occasionally, installations for other punishments. The jailer or sheriff lived on the ground floor, and the second and third floors were cell blocks. A typical jail of the period might have been zoned to segregate prisoners by crime and sex, which was a departure from earlier detention practices in the United States.   The 1912 jail and courthouse construction contract initially awarded to Standard Construction Company of Dallas but when delays occurred, the contract was assigned to Gross Construction Company which completed to projects for a total of $187,715. Cell work for the Cameron County Jail was supplied by San Antonio’s Southern Steel Company, later called Southern Prison Company, at a cost of $3,674. It was the cell work that delayed final completion and occupancy of the jail. The jail was not occupied until sometime in 1913.

The Old Cameron County Jail, built in 1912-1913 at 1201 East Van Buren Street in Brownsville, Texas, is the second facility constructed specifically to house prisoners for this county which was established in 1848. It succeeds the building constructed in 1882 that was used until this building was completed. A new Cameron County Jail was built in 1978. The jail was built in four stages – 1912-1913, 1923, 1926, and 1930 – spanning a period during which Cameron County’s population almost tripled from twenty-seven thousand to just under seventy-eight thousand. The original 1912 building was designed by Atlee B. Ayres, and the 1930 expansion by Ayres and his son Robert M. Ayres - it is one of five jail buildings attributed to Ayres and Ayres. The Cameron County Jail is significant as it pertains to the areas of politics and government as the building that housed county prisoners for sixty-five years during a period of tremendous community growth.  

Old Cameron County Jail

Adrian Ortiz was born in 1860 and, apparently, immigrated to the U.S. before he was 18 in order to avoid being drafted into the Spanish army. He chose to settle in Brownsville, presumably, to join a relative, Juan Fernandez, who was already living here and owned a general store. Brownsville also had an established Spanish community. Ortiz worked for Fernandez and got married within a few years of arriving. After gaining enough experience to start his own general store, he built La Madrileña in 1892. He sold clothing, food, groceries, hardware, and other goods including wine and dried codfish. The majority of his customers were local farmers and he forged business relationships within the Spanish community to supply his store. La Madrileña also became an important gathering place for the community. Ortiz passed away in 1957. The store closed soon after and the building was eventually abandoned and fell into disrepair. In 1987, a lawyer (not the same one who appears to own it now) bought and rehabilitated it. The old building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 for its architecture and association with Ortiz.

La Madrileña is one of the more architecturally unique buildings in Brownsville. It was built in 1892 by Spanish native Adrian Ortiz (1860-1957), who became a prosperous merchant and prominent figure in the city. Ortiz, who was born in Madrid, Spain, named the building La Madrileña, which means "native of Madrid." The building is an excellent example of vernacular commercial architecture, featuring a number of interesting elements including elaborate corbeled brickwork, curved parapets, pinnacles, and several pairs of wooden doors set in bays on the street-facing sides of the structure. The building today appears to house a law firm. 

La Madrileña

Manuel Alonso Sr. was born in Spain in 1842 of Spanish-born parents and immigrated to the United States in 1864. His grandson reported in an interview in 1977 that Manuel came to Brownsville in 1865. In September 1877 Manuel bought lots in the original town of Brownsville to build a home. In 1878, he married Guadalupe C., who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1875. Guadalupe was born in October 1846 in Mexico of Mexican-born parents. Although the Alonso House on St. Charles Street was built in 1877, Manuel Alonso Sr. was not listed in the 1880 census for Brownsville or Cameron County. However, a Salvador "Alonzo" lived on St. Charles Street in 1880. The 29-year-old single grocer was a native of Spain as were his parents. He lived with his sister-in-law, Guadalupe Cordova, a 27-year-old, married woman. Guadalupe appears to be Manuel's wife and her occupation was keeping house. Perhaps Manuel lived elsewhere for work in 1880. In 1900, Manuel and Guadalupe "Alonzo" lived on St. Charles Street in a home that he owned. The 58-year-old grocer and his wife lived with their four surviving of six children: Alfonso (21), Antonio (19), Manuel Jr. (15), and Carmen (10). The two eldest boys worked as clerks in a grocery store and the two younger children attended school; all four had been born in Texas. While the parents and children could read and write, only the two younger children could speak English in 1900. Three more people lived in the Charles Street house in 1900: Guadalupe's unmarried sister, Susana (44), Jose A. Madrazo (24, a grocery store clerk), and Adolfo Garrate (17, a grocery store clerk). Madrazo, a Spanish native, immigrated to the U.S. in 1893; Garrate, a Mexican native, had been in the U.S. for two years. Manuel Alonso Sr. (67) was widowed by 1910 and shared the St. Charles Street house with his sister-in-law, Susana Cordova (45) and children Antonio (30), Manuel Jr. (23), and Carmen (20). Jose A. Cisneros (28) was a boarder in the home. Manuel Sr. worked as a wholesale grocery merchant; Antonio was a bookkeeper in the grocery store and the other two men were grocery store salesmen. By 1920, the widowed Manuel Alonso Sr. lived in the St. Charles house with his single son, Manuel Jr. The elder Manuel (77) was a merchant in his own general merchandise store. The younger Manuel (35) worked as a clerk in the family's mercantile store. Manuel Sr. served as a Director of the First National Bank from about 1906 to the time of his death in 1922. Antonio bought his father's store stock and business in September 1920. No Alonso household was listed on Charles Street in the 1930 or 1940 census. In 1977, the first floor of the Alonso store building was occupied by the Modern Bride Shop and the second story was a private residence. The building was owned in 1977 by a Brownsville physician named Tedd M. Crow. The Gorgas Science Foundation renovated the dilapidated building and used it for its headquarters until donating it to the Brownsville Historical Association in 2010.

The Alonso Building on the corner of E. St. Charles and E. Sixth Street is owned by the Brownsville Historical Association. The building is now known as The Historic Alonso and is available for event rentals. The Spanish-born Manuel Alonso built the one-story residence on this site in 1877 around the time of his marriage to a Mexican-born woman, and added the adjacent brick, two-story mercantile building in 1890. Alonso was a wholesale grocer and several of his children also worked in his mercantile store, "Los Dos Canones" (the two cannons). The cast iron porch railings on the mercantile building were ordered from New Orleans by Alonso and reflect Spanish and French architectural influences. Manuel Alonso died in 1922 and his family owned the property until 1944.

Alonso Building

Mary Josephine Glaevecke Browne was from a prominent family in Brownsville. Her father, Adolphus Glaevecke, was German immigrant who arrived in Port Isabel in 1836. He moved the family to Brownsville in 1859 and became Cameron County Clerk in 1874. It is unknown when Mary was born but she married Matthew Browne, who was from an Irish family of wealthy ranchers. Mathew served as Cameron County Sheriff in the early 1890s but sadly died in 1892 (no information is readily available about his death). Three years later, Mary built the house. She later sold it in 1903. After a series of owners, Martha bought the house in 1920. She lived here for rest of her life.

The 1895 Brown-Wagner House is a well-preserved example of a large brick house built in Brownsville dating to the late 1800s. It is named after its builder and first owner, Mary Josephine Glaevecke Browne, and Martha Wagner, who bought it in 1920. The house is notable for its molded brickwork, which is unique in the area. The architect, S.W. Brooks, designed the house in such a way that it resembles the Victorian Italianate style. It remains a private home today. 

Brown-Wagner House

In terms of architecture, the two-story house is a fine example of Classical architecture with elements of the Colonial style as well. Built with yellow brick, the house features porches on both floors that wrap around three sides of the building, a large and curved two-story portico on the southwestern side with Ionic columns, and a "widow's walk" on the roof.Jose's father, Simon Celaya, was born in Spain and arrived in Brownsville in 1850. He became a successful capitalist and the president of the Rio Grande Railroad Company. Jose served as secretary and treasurer of the company. He also served as County Commissioner and several other important local positions including as director of the Texas Bank and Trust Company. Serafina's father, Jose Fernandez, was also a native of Spain and became a prosperous merchant. It is not clear when she and Jose (Celaya) were married, but they completed work on this house in 1912 and lived here until 1924 when Rentfro Creager bought it.Creager was born on March 11, 1877 in Waco, Texas. He graduated from Southwestern University in 1898 with a B.S. degree and then attended the University of Texas-Austin where he earned a law degree in 1900. He opened a law practice in Brownsville. In the coming years, Creager's stature grew as he got into business and politics. He was the collector customs for several years before running for governor as a Republican in 1916. In 1923, Creager was elected Texas' representative on the Republic National Committee and remained in this position for the rest of his life. In 1920, he gave the speech endorsing presidential nominee Warren G. Harding at the Republican National Convention. After Harding won the election, he visited Creager at this house before the inauguration. Creager later played a large role in helping Herbert Hoover become the Republican presidential nominee in 1928, and he also helped Alfred Landon to become the Republican nominee for governor in 1936.Creager was involved with many local activities in Brownsville as well. He served on civic boards, and was an active member in the Episcopal community. He also owned a farm and citrus orchard. He and his wife, Alice, moved out of the house not long before he died on October 28, 1950. Alice continued to run the farm and orchard, and she also participated in local civic and philanthropic activities. It is unclear when she passed away. The house began being used as office space starting in the 1980s.

Constructed in 1912, Brownsville's Celaya-Creager House is historically significant for its striking architecture and association with Jose and Serafina Celaya, the first owners of the home, and Rentfro B. Creager and his wife Alice who lived in the home from the 1920s to the late 1950s. The Celayas came from two of the city's prosperous families. Jose was a successful businessman and held a number of political positions as well. Rentfro was even more of a prominent figure as an attorney, banker, president of an oil company, and a leading figure in the local and national Republican politics. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is now the location of a home health care provider.

Celaya-Creager House

There are interpretive signs posted at some of the graves that give details on the local notables buried in the Old City Cemetery. There are many above-ground crypts as seen in the cemeteries of New Orleans as well as traditional headstones from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Family burial plots are outlined with low concrete or brick curbs or cast iron fencing. Inscriptions are found in Spanish, English, French, and German, reflecting the cultural melting pot of south Texas history. There are separate sections in the cemetery for the local Masonic Lodge and for Catholics (see the image of the 1976b plat). Although the Old City Cemetery is not a military cemetery, there are interments of those who fought on both sides of the Civil War, although there are understandably more from the Southern than the Northern side. Joseph J. Cocke was a Corporal in the First Virginia Artillery Regiment and Victor Egly was an Assistant Engineer on the Confederate Naval ship "Neptune." Welcome Alonzo Crafts served as a Captain in the First New Hampshire Infantry and George M. Dennett was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 9th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops. The Old City Cemetery is a popular place for ghost hunters. It has been said that a photograph was taken of a spectral girl in a blue dress behind a gravestone. The grave of a four-year-old girl named Daisy Starck attracts the most attention. She was the town's first traffic fatality, trampled to death by a horse and wagon in 1879. She is buried next to the grave of her young cousin, Freddy. Nighttime security guards claim to have seen two children playing with a ball who then disappear. Visitors bring toys to the grave of Daisy so she and Freddy don't get bored. The Brownsville Historical Association (BHA) has created the Old City Cemetery Center, an exhibit on the cemetery's history, in the former baggage room of the old Southern Pacific Railroad Depot. The entrance to the exhibit is one block southeast of the cemetery gate, at 1004 E. Sixth street, but is open by appointment only or during special events or tours. The E. Madison Street side of the former depot houses the Historic Brownsville Museum (another Clio entry).The BHA offers help with genealogical research or more information on the cemetery by contacting them through the Historic Brownsville Museum.

The Old City Cemetery was established in 1853 and is bounded by E. Madison Street, E. Fifth Street, E. Second Street and a waterway, Town Resaca. The entrance gate is on E. Fifth Street just northeast of the intersection with E. Madison Street. Also known as the Brownsville City Cemetery and Hebrew Cemetery, the nearly five-acre burial ground in the Buena Vida neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. The cemetery is significant in the areas of landscape architecture, art, and community planning and development. The Hebrew Cemetery is situated in the northwest corner of the cemetery and was established in 1868. An internal road paved in brick heads straight through the cemetery from the main gate and takes a left turn at the edge of the Hebrew Cemetery before exiting onto E. Madison Street.

Old City Cemetery

The museum showcases a variety of exhibits that interpret events from Brownsville’s past. These exhibits include information from the earliest military fort in our area to displays of antique furniture and once common household items.In 1990, the Mary Yturria Education Center was constructed behind the depot building for providing the community a center for educational outreach programs, cultural programs, art exhibits and civic events. The center routinely features an art exhibit on display by a local artist.This depot was built by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1928 as part of its extension into the Rio Grande Valley. A fine example of Spanish colonial revival architecture, the depot features a tile roof, arcades, curvilinear parapets, and other ornamentation common to that style. The structure was used as a passenger depot until 1952. It now serves as a reminder of the railroad’s impact on the development of Brownsville and the lower Rio Grande Valley.A feature exhibit of the museum is a Baldwin wood-burning, narrow gauge railroad locomotive. The Rio Grande Railroad began operating in 1872 between Brownsville and Point Isabel, now Port Isabel. &nbsp;The entire distance of the line was 22.5 miles. This tiny engine known as Rio Grande Engine Number 1, has &nbsp;the distinction of being the last of its kind in the world.

The Historic Brownsville Museum, since 1986, is located within the former Southern Pacific Railroad Depot built in 1928. The building is a magnificent example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and is recognized as a Texas Historic Marker and National Register of Historic Places.

Brownsville Museum and Historic Southern Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot

Charles Stillman was the son of a New England merchant, Francis Stillman. Charles moved to Matamoros, Mexico in 1828 at age sixteen and operated a store for his father's company in Durango, Mexico. Charles became a highly successful businessman and was involved in multiple enterprises including a river boat company, a cotton brokerage, and silver mines and textile mills in Mexico. He married Elizabeth P. Goodrich of Connecticut in 1849. In the late 1840s he founded the Brownsville Town Company with partners Samuel Belden and Jacob Mussina. He built a substantial home in Brownsville in 1950 (also a Clio entry). During the Civil War, his company transported Confederate cotton to Matamoros, Mexico, and was paid for the transport in gold. Stillman purchased much of the cotton and sent it to his textile mill in Monterrey or sold it to New York buyers or the U.S. Government through his mercantile firm, Smith and Dunning. Charles Stillman raised cattle, sheep, and horses on his Texas ranch north of Brownsville. The Rey family gave the land grant the name "Rincon de Los Laureles," meaning "Corner of the Laurels." After suffering two strokes, Charles decided to give up ranching and life in Texas; he sold the property to his brother, Cornelius, in 1864. Charles and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to New York; Charles died there in 1875. The new owner of the ranch in 1868 was Mifflin Kenedy; the 50-year-old was one of Charles Stillman's business partners. Kenedy became known for being one of the first Texas ranchers to fence off his land. He enclosed three sides of Los Laureles in 1869 with smooth wire fence (the fourth side was the coastal waters). A Scottish syndicate, the Texas Land and Cattle Company, bought the Laureles Ranch in 1882, paying Kenedy more than a million dollars. A Scotsman named John Tod became the ranch manager. Tod greatly improved the cattle stock on the ranch and won many livestock awards. The 200,000-acre ranch and all of its cattle was purchased from the syndicate in 1906 by Henrietta King, the widow of the rancher Richard King. The Laureles became part of the massive King Ranch; it was west of King's Santa Gertrudis Ranch. The sale made Mrs. King the owner of one of the largest ranch in the world, of a million and a quarter acres in four counties: Nueces, Cameron, Hidalgo and Starr. Laureles Ranch has remained one of the divisions of the King Ranch for over one hundred years. The building materials for the ranch house may have been prefabricated and sent to Texas; numerals have been seen carved into some of the wooden elements. The restored ranch home's wraparound porches and grounds are highlights of the visitor experience. The Laureles Ranch House Museum is part of the Mitte Cultural District and is within walking distance of many local zoos, parks, and museums. The Visitor Center for the district is located off the Sixth Street exit of Highway 69. The Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Foundation funded restoration of Dean Porter Park in 1998 which now offers walking trails, picnic shelters and a swimming pool on twenty-five acres. The foundation recognized that the area surrounding the park was the locale of many of the town's cultural organizations. Other nearby attractions in the Mitte Cultural District are the Gladys Porter Zoo, the Camille Playhouse theater, the Children's Museum of Brownsville, the Old City Cemetery (another Clio entry), and the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art.

The Laureles Ranch House was once the home of Brownsville founder Charles Stillman. The house is a late Georgian Greek revival style frame house that was built for Charles around 1850 on his ranch north of Brownsville and south of Corpus Christi. Charles purchased land on the old Spanish land grant in 1848 from the Perez-Ray family. Charles sold his interest in the ranch to his brother, Cornelius in 1864 and moved to New York with his family. After four years of operating the ranch, Cornelius sold it to Miflin Kenedy. The restored home is now located in Linear Park and is open as a museum by the Brownsville Historical Association. The Laureles Ranch House is available for rental as a rustic venue for special events. 

Laureles Ranch House Museum

The museum's origins date back to 1935 when eight women began to meet and discuss the possibility of forming an local arts organization. They established the Brownsville Art League and its members included anyone from Brownsville an neighboring towns. For the next couple of decades or so, the League, apparently, met in a variety of locations including churches, backyards, and, notably, at the morgue in Fort Brown. Finally, the League commissioned one of its members, Ruth Young McGonigle, to design a permanent space for the organization. The League changed its name to the current one in 2002 and built its present facility in the coming years.

Established in 1935, the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art showcases modern and contemporary works of art created by local artists and artists from around the world. The museum features permanent a collection and presents changing exhibitions throughout the year. In addition to its exhibitions, the museum offers a variety of adult and youth art programs, and it also houses a library containing 500 art books that are available to members. 

Brownsville Museum of Fine Art

The Costumes of the Americas Museum works to preserve and share the history and significance of authentic indigenous clothing and jewelry from throughout Mexico. By offering programs and exhibits, the museum hopes to foster greater understanding and appreciation for the history and cultural heritage embodied by these costumes. The roots of the museum lie in the adventurous life of&nbsp;Florence Terry Griswold, who lived on the porous border with Mexico and the United States in the 1910s. A bilingual traveler, Griswold lived and embraced the concept of pan-Americanism:&nbsp;mutual protection and the promotion of better commercial and cultural relations among the nations of North America and South America,&nbsp;based on a community of interests stemming from geographical proximity. She&nbsp;founded the&nbsp;Pan American Round Table Movement in 1916&nbsp;to promote understanding and friendliness among all&nbsp;women across both continents. &nbsp;Chapters of the organization&nbsp;began to appear in other parts of the Americas.&nbsp; The Brownsville&nbsp;chapter&nbsp;of the organization was founded in 1932 by Bessie K. Johnson,&nbsp;a recent immigrant from Mexico and one of that nation's leading experts on Mexican folklore and native dress. Johnson added her collection of clothing and accessories while also encouraging members of her chapter of to&nbsp;collect more items. She assigned each Brownsville Chapter participant a particular nation of North or South America and&nbsp;challenged each one to acquire a costume from her assigned country, seeing that acquisition as a method of learning more about these countries and their women. The ladies heartily took up Johnson's challenge, and thus began one of the finest costume collections in the Western Hemisphere, which&nbsp;would&nbsp;serve as the basis of the museum today. &nbsp; Over the years, the Brownsville chapter's&nbsp;costume collection continued to grow via&nbsp;acquisitions and gifts from members and friends of&nbsp;the Pan-American Round Table, from private collections, and from bequests such as that of Johnson. By&nbsp;the mid-1990s it was&nbsp;one of the largest collections of authentic North, Central, and South American costumes in the world, with clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories&nbsp;from&nbsp;all reaches of the Western Hemisphere.&nbsp; In 1997, that Brownsville chapter was invited to move its costume collection&nbsp;to a part of&nbsp;the Mitte Cultural Education Center within Dean Porter Park. To protect the collection, the Pan American Round Table Costume Corporation was formed. The Brownsville group&nbsp;transferred the entire collection&nbsp;to the corporation for safe keeping and the management of the museum.&nbsp;The Mitte&nbsp;Cultural Education Center, encompassing the museum collection and educational outreach activities,&nbsp;opened its doors on May 6, 2005. The&nbsp;educational component offers&nbsp;a traveling collection for local academic functions or&nbsp;private viewings to&nbsp;organizations or other interested parties. &nbsp;

Located inside the Mitte Cultural Education Center in Dean Porter Park, the Costumes of the Americas Museum houses the world's largest collection of traditional, indigenous clothing—as well as accessories such as jewelry and headpieces—from the Americas and the Caribbean. The center and the museum opened in 2005. 

Brownsville Texas History Trail

Samuel W. Brooks House

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information