Brownsville Commercial

First National Bank Building in Brownsville

Posted by RGVMOD in Brownsville Commercial on August 31, 2016

From the Newspaper Archives: “Brownsville Bank Plans Are Released,” AGC News Service, 10 June 1958, p. 7. Phelps & Dewees & Simmons (San Antonio) architects for 6-story, $1 million reinforced concrete, solar glazed tile, and marble First National Bank at Brownsville Building, Brownsville. W. O. Roberson, pres. “Bell Awarded Bank Building in Brownsville,” AGC News Service, 8 July 1958, p. 7. P. G. Bell Construction Co. (Houston) awarded $947,743 contract for First National Bank at Brownsville, E. Levee between 8th and 9th Sts., Phelps & Dewees & Simmons (SA), archs. “Hannah Retires from Bank Here,” Brownsville Herald 13 June 1954, p. 1. Moody Interests of Galveston buy control of First National Bank from J. W. Hannah, who purchased bank in 1943 from Hubert R. Hudson estate. Hannah sold his interests to Moodys in November 1953. Hannah was born in Alabama in 1908 but grew up in Oklahoma. Banker in Oklahoma before moving to Brownsville. “Ground Breaking Ceremonies Set,” Brownsville Herald 16 July 1958, p. 1. Fr. George Sexton, pastor of Sacred Heart, Sam Perl representing Temple Beth El, and the Rev. R. O. Macintosh, retired rector of Church of the Advent, to attend ground breaking ceremony for construction of $1 million, 6-story building, […]

Brownsville Chamber of Commerce

Posted by RGVMOD in Brownsville Commercial, RGV Mid Century Modern Architecture on July 6, 2014

During a recent visit we were able to photograph the building to share with our readers. It was built in 1965 and designed by Wilhite & Winans. Inside, the facility is practically intact. We were informed that repairs to the inside of the building will begin soon. From the outside the building looks very nice with its heroglific-like design at the top of the main entrance. Palm trees and tropical plants adorn the surroundings. We love the light that comes into the main lobby; very midcentury modern. Most offices have patio doors and or large windows. We encourage visitors to this site to share information on this building that we can share with midcentury modern architecture fans.

Aerial of Puerta Mexico and U.S. Border Services Building in Brownsville

Posted by RGVMOD in Brownsville Commercial, Matamoros, RGV Mid Century Modern Architecture on March 6, 2014

Contrasting national policies about the role that architecture and urban design might play in constructing national identity were evident in comparing Matamoros’s puerta to… …the U.S. Border Services Building completed in Brownsville in 1961 and designed by John York and Olin Boese. York’s initial designs had been as exuberant as Pani’s. But by the time the General Accounting Office value engineered the project, all that survived was York’s crisp detailing. Puerta de México Antonio Bermúdez, in the book he published about PRONAF in 1966, wrote that Mexicans took pride in the clear superiority of the modern, designed public spaces on the Mexican side of the border, when compared to those on the U.S. side.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish School, Brownsville

Posted by RGVMOD in Brownsville Commercial, RGV Mid Century Modern Architecture on March 6, 2014

Bowman Swanson Hiester were especially identified with the design of school buildings, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish School in Brownsville of 1964, for which Marvin Boland was designer.

Darling-Mouser Funeral Home, Brownsville, 1966, Robert E. Velten

Posted by RGVMOD in Brownsville Commercial, RGV Mid Century Modern Architecture on March 2, 2014

In Brownsville, Robert E. Velten, son of the Brownsville builder W. A. Velten, began practice in 1959. Velten’s Darling-Mouser Funeral Home of 1966 explored the use of folded plate construction. Photos and text by Stephen Fox

Fort Brown Memorial Center, Brownsville, 1954, Wiltshire & Fisher

Posted by RGVMOD in Brownsville Commercial, RGV Mid Century Modern Architecture on February 28, 2014

The winning design, by the Dallas architects Wiltshire & Fisher (now F&S Partners) and their young designer Donald Jarvis, was hailed by Architectural Forum magazine as a model community center for mid-sized towns. The civic center won a national design award from the American Institute of Architects in 1954, the year of its completion. Suburban in its scale the Fort Brown Center complied with Mayor Stokely’s call for regional awareness not stylistically but performatively, by incorporating patio-huertas, corredores, and ramadas to unify the complex spatially and experientially. Photos and text Stephen Fox

Early 20th Century Historical Buildings in Brownsville,Texas

Posted by RGVMOD in Brownsville Commercial, RGV Mid Century Modern Architecture on February 5, 2014

Hotel El Jardín and Missouri-Pacific Passenger Station, 1927, Kelwood Co.; Brownsville International Airport, 1929, 1930, Ben V. Proctor; U.S. Border Services Building, 1929, William D. Van Siclen; Southern Pacific Railway Passenger Station, 1929, R. W. Barnes, chief engineer, Brownsville On the Texan side of the border during the second half of the 1920s, scenographic Spanish Mediterranean architecture identified buildings linked to transportation, communications, and trade technologies as modern. Both of Brownsville’s railroad passenger stations, its tallest building, the eight-story Hotel El Jardín of 1927 (crowned with 60-foot-tall radio transmitting towers), the U.S. Border Services Building of 1929 at the Gateway International Bridge , and Brownsville International Airport terminal of 1929 inagurated by Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earhart, deployed winsome combinations of stucco, tile, and cast stone to assert the eclectic proposition that in an Exotic Tropical Paradise there was no contradiction between modernity and tradition. Photo and text by Stephen Fox