Posted by RGVMOD
in Matamoros,
Mid Century Modern Architecture on January 18, 2014
Across the border from Brownsville, Texas, is Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Brownsville’s sister city just a short walk across the “Puerta Mexico” bridge. Stephen Fox wrote about the city’s midcentury modern residences during a recent lecture. Casa Manuel Cavazos Gutiérrez and Casa en Calle 8a y Bustamante, Matamoros, c. 1950, Arq. Enrique León de la Barra Architects moved to Matamoros for the first time since the 1860s. Enrique León de la Barra of Ciudad Victoria was one of the newcomers. He designed neo-colonial chalets for Matamoros’s cotton elite in the late 1940s and early ‘50s. Casa Amador Garza González, Colonial Jardín, Matamoros, 1950, Arq. Augustín Reyes Escobar The most prolific of the newly arrived architects was Augustín Reyes Escobar, who was from Parral, Chihuahua. Reyes designed one of the largest houses in Matamoros for the cotton merchant Amador Garza González in 1950. It was built in the city’s new elite neighborhood, Colonia Jardín, developed in 1945 along the road leading from the center of Matamoros to the Gateway International Bridge. In 1951 Time magazine reported that “Along the flowered streets of Matamoros’ El Jardín district, there are so many new and luxurious houses that one awed American mumbled: ‘This is […]