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The McAllen Heritage Center is a local history museum and historical society in McAllen, Texas. It promotes and preserves the city's history and culture through exhibits and the preservation of historical sites, art, photographs, and records and writings. The museum, called "La Placinta," was opened in 2008.

McAllen Heritage Center

Start at Quinta Mazatlan, a city park with an historic adobe residence from the 1930s, and park your car for a hike through the nature trails. Then drive downtown and walk to a historic theater, hotel, and local heritage museum before driving to the art and science museum.

Driving/ walking/ hiking tour of McAllen, Texas

Quinta Mazatlan was built for Jason Chilton Matthews (1887-1964), a writer and composer, and his wife, Marcia Jamieson (1891-1963). Mr. Mathews served in the Army during World War I and enjoyed traveling the world. Matthews personally built most of the adobe mansion himself. The hand-carved wooden doors were created by a Swiss master woodcarver to match the Spanish Governor's Palace doors in San Antonio; the two cherubs are based on the Matthews children. The ceiling beams are made of Lebanese cedar and are said to have been a gift from the King of Lebanon for Matthews' service in the Lebanon's War of Independence. Before building the mansion, a cottage was built; it is separated from the mansion by a patio/ courtyard. Matthews was wary of radar waves and painted the interior and exterior of the buildings with aluminum sulfate paint as a deterrent. The couple raised a son and daughter while living here, and edited a conservative, pro-American magazine named American Mercury in their later years. The Texas Historical Commission placed a plaque in front of the mansion in 1985 to honor the Matthews. The house was up for sale in the mid-1960s after the deaths of the Matthews; a local church used the cottage for a coffee shop and offered poetry readings. The house was heavily damaged in 1967 when Hurricane Beulah took off most of the roof. Frank and Marilyn Schultz bought the eight-acre estate in 1968 and repaired and expanded the house. They added stone patios and planted exotic trees, shrubs and flowers while allowing the native Thornforest to regrow. The Schultz family lived in the house and raised a son and daughter here. The property was won at auction from the Schultz family in 1998 by the City of McAllen, saving it from development. The mission of the urban sanctuary is to enrich people's lives by sharing knowledge about birds, plants and environmental stewardship in South Texas, while preserving the historic adobe mansion. Admission rates are $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and children ages 3 to 12. No pets are allowed except for service dogs, and the grounds are no-smoking. Members of Quinta Mazatlan get in free, as do children under age 3.

Quinta Mazatlan is now a nature and birding center on Sunset Drive off of South 10th Street, east of McAllen Fire Station Number Four. Sunset Drive ends at the gate to the nature center with parking on the right just before reaching the gate; you buy a ticket and walk in. The core of the property is an adobe mansion built around 1930, when the surroundings were grapefruit orchards. The word quinta is Spanish for villa or country house; Mazatlan translates to land of the deer. Quinta Mazatlan is part of the World Birding Center and is under the stewardship of the City of McAllen Parks and Recreation Department. It opened to the public in 2006.

Quinta Mazatlan

Plans for the theater were drawn up by a Dallas company, Texas Consolidated Theaters. The company already owned three English-language theaters in McAllen. The contractor on Cine El Rey was W.E. Crawford. The theater opened in May 1947 and served the influx of Mexican agricultural workers who came to McAllen and wanted to see Spanish-language films. The Brocero program allowed five million Mexican workers to labor on American farms due to the labor shortages caused by World War II. Opening night of Cine El Rey was a special event for the local Hispanic community, and ushers were dressed in Mexican folk costumes. The first film screened - There are Dead People Who Make No Noise (Hay Muertos Que No Hacen Ruido) - starred the Mexican comic actor German Valdes; invitations for opening night were printed in Spanish. The 1930s and 1940s were the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, with Mexican westerns (charro) and comedies being the most popular. The new theater advertised in the local Spanish language newspaper El Echo, and an English language newspaper, the McAllen Evening Monitor. Feline Perez, a local artist, hand-painted large posters to advertise each film in the early years of the theater. The three-story building is about fifty feet wide by one hundred seventy-five feet long. The lower front and the recessed entryway walls are covered by red or ivory-colored enameled metal plates, screwed to lumber attached to the underlying bricks. The foyer and lobby floors are gold, terracotta and salmon terrazo tile with a design motif on some of a terracotta circle bisected by two parallel lines. A heavy rainstorm shortly before the theater was about to open collapsed the building's roof, but it was able to be replaced in time. Cine El Rey was owned by ABC-Interstate until 1973, when it was purchased by Eduardo Izaguirre. Mr. Izaguirre continued showing Spanish-language films, but added second-run American films, too. Unable to compete financially with larger theaters, the theater closed in 1988. In June 2001, the Cine El Rey building was bought from Mr. Izaguirre by Luis and Ann Munoz, who went about rehabilitating the building while retaining as much of the historic materials as they could. They intended to create the atmosphere of a 1940s Mexican Theater while creating a modern performing arts center to showcase films, live theater performances, small concerts, and local meetings. Brothers Bert and Isaac Guerra purchased Cine El Rey in 2007. When the brothers show movies in the theater, they are independent films, with appearances by directors or actors. Perfomances at the arts center have been cancelled since mid-March 2020 due to the pandemic. The owners hope to be able to retain the building until it is safe to re-open. The privately-owned live performance venue did not qualify for government aid in the first round of assistance because the brothers do not have employees and are not a Small Business. A local Congressman, Vicente Gonalez, is working to ensure that live performance venues such as Cine El Rey are covered in the second round of federal aid. In the meantime, the Guerra brothers suggested donations of $5 via the Cine El Rey Facebook page.

The Cine El Rey ("The King Cinema") was constructed in 1947 as a Spanish-language movie theater in downtown McAllen. The South 17th Street neighborhood contained a number of businesses that catered to the Hispanic community. While the movie theater closed in 1988, the building was later used as a community outreach church in the late 1990s. The three-story concrete building's distinctive neon projecting marquee still faces South 17th Street and the building has become a performing arts center. The Cine El Rey was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 as significant for its Art Moderne architectural style and its importance to the local history of entertainment and ethnic heritage of McAllen.

Cine El Rey

Twenty-thousand troops from New York State were sent to Camp McAllen in 1916 due to border disturbances with Mexico. This caused a building boom in town, and the Rio Grande Hotel Corporation was formed to create luxury accommodations for visitors to the rapidly-growing town. The main partners in the corporation were Oliver P. Archer (a future Mayor of McAllen) and Rowland Horn. A San Antonio architect, M.L. Waller, designed the luxury hotel. The Casa de Palmas was one of the fanciest hotels in Texas south of San Antonio. It was a popular place to hold luncheons, club meetings, and dinner dances. In the aftermath of a major hurricane in 1919, the hotel was a refuge for many locals and visitors. The Casa de Palmas Hotel was renovated in 1974 after a devastating fire the previous year; lightning struck the south tower. The hotel was rebuilt as it was before the fire for the most part. Before becoming a Trademark by Wyndham hotel, the Casa de Palmas was known as the Renaissance Casa de Palmas, operated by Marriott, with 165 guest rooms. Another major fire damaged the hotel in 1987, forcing it to close. After three million dollars in renovations, the hotel reopened. The Casa de Palmas also spent time as the Doubletree Club in the 1990s. The brick exterior of the Casa de Palmas has been covered with white stucco, and tall palms dot the landscape. The hotel is directly west of a park square -- Archer Park -- with a central pavilion/ bandstand on the opposite side of 17th Street; the land for the park was donated to the city in 1910 by Oliver P. Archer, a partner in the hotel. The freight depot of the railroad was on a siding just steps south of the building. The coming of the railroad to town in 1905 spurred on the development of McAllen. Ghostly sightings have been reported in the hotel. An elderly female spirit is said to wander the basement. A veiled woman dressed in Black has been spotted in the hallways at night. This hasn't scared away others who have stayed at the hotel, including actor Marlon Brando, comedian Bob Hope, and President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Casa de Palmas, at 101 N. Main Street, was built in 1918 and originally contained sixty rooms. The central patio, red tile roof, and twin towers give the hotel its Spanish Mission Revival architectural style. When Fidel Castro was bailed out of prison by the Mexican President, he secretly met at this hotel in early 1956 with former Cuban President Carlos Prio Socarras to seek funding for his guerilla fighters. The building is now the Casa de Palmas Hotel, part of the Trademark Collection by Wyndham. Casa de Palmas was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 and is within the city of McAllen's Casa de Palmas historic district.

Casa de Palmas

In the 1960s, the McAllen Junior League wanted to increase the quality of life for the community&nbsp;and provide a place for people to learn about art and science. The museum was chartered in June 1967 and a year later the league leased a 5,000 facility. The museum opened a year later. It was moved to its current location in 1976 and went under a big expansion in 2001. Classrooms, an&nbsp;art studio, a cafe, a theater and exhibits were added.

The International Museum of Art and Science is the Rio Grande Valley's premier science and art museum. It is a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate and is Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The 50,000 square foot facility offers hands on, interactive exhibits for visitors to learn about art and science. The permanent exhibits are: Science on a Sphere, a NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-designed exhibit that teaches visitors about space; RioScape, the valley's only interactive science playground; Water Journey and Watershed; and a sculpture garden, which includes a replica Olmec stone head sculpture. The museum also offers various educational and cultural programs.

Driving/ walking/ hiking tour of McAllen, Texas

McAllen Heritage Center

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