SLUMMIN' WITH CHUCK: STILLMAN'S LOVE SHACK?

By Juan Montoya
Neighbors in the hood around the Cueto Building on East Madison Street were disconcerted.
"They just knocked down a bunch of slums houses when the city bought the property and now they bring in more?" asked a neighbor.
"Why on earth would they put that eyesore there in place of the old trailer house and shacks they had there before?"
Well, it's kind of hard to explain to someone that the so-called "ranch house" that allegedly belonged to the  Brownsville founder – some say robber baron – Charles Stillman is a piece of history.

The local newspaper ran a laudatory article when a mover hauled in the wooden structure that local historians say dates back to 1840-19850 when Stillman was bankrolling Richard King as he set about to amass the largest ranch in South Texas and plunder the local Mexican-American population of their properties.
This was prior to the booming 1860s when, during the U.S. Civil War, King and Stillman, Miflin Kenedy and Francisco Yturria cornered the market on smuggled Confederate cotton and shipped it out of Matamoros' Puerto Bagdad and made out like  thieves. Yet, there was no loyalty here. These gents bought it from the South, sold it to England and to the North as well so that they could make uniforms for the soldiers who were fighting each other over slavery.
The home was allegedly built for Stillman by King Ranch shipwrights. King eventually became a steamboat magnate. He and Stillman got rich in the steamboat business with Kenedy, founder of another big spread, the Kenedy Ranch
Even though Brownsville resident Alexander Stillman, a direct descent of Charles Stillman, and other members of the Stillman family, are reluctant to admit that Charles may have used the Laureles ranch crib as a love nest for those long lonely days when he yearned for the warm embraces of his wife Elizabeth, far away in the cold north, there are many sly tongues that have alleged that Charles succumbed to that usual downfall of the gringos who take a hankering for the local "signoritas."
Even though the formal Stillman brick house is located at the corner of 13th and East Washington streets, the old "new" house is a mite rustic.
For years, it languished in the Laureles Ranch, an old Spanish land grant 22 miles south of Corpus Christi. Then, deciding it was eyesore compared to the other houses on the spread, it was moved off the ranch several years ago and placed under the stewardship of the Corpus Christi Heritage Society.
Larry Lof, president of the Gorgas Science Foundation, UTB professor emeritus and an ardent historic preservationist, said the house will require at least two lots.
A master of the understatement, Lof said the crib could use a little sprucing up.
“It’s not a townhouse, so it needs a little space around it even it if it’s in town,” he said. “We have a lot of buildings that are close to each other and close to the street. This one needs more space.”
The house, he told the local daily, is "typical of old South Texas ranch dwellings, built to accommodate people who spent most of their time outside, thus the wide, shady eaves and 10-foot-deep, wrap-around porch, for instance."
“It’ll be a really nice addition to Brownsville," Lof opined. "The fun part of it will be finally getting a chance to start working on it and restoring it, and of course when it’s finally open.”

To the neighbor quoted above, it can't be soon enough.

"C'mon, that thing is going to drive down real estate prices, even if Mayor (Tony) Martinez wants to give away city money for worthless downtown properties," he said. "It looks like a hangout where you could take a few beers and a bottle and have a good time with the babes out there in the middle of the llano where no one can see you."