SHOULD CHUCK STILLMAN'S LOVE SHACK GO TO MATA?

By Juan Montoya
We hear that as the time approaches for the University of Texas at Brownsville to take over the city-leased empty lot at the corner of Madison and 13th Street, the heirs of Brownsville despoiler Charles Stillman are scrambling to find a place to place their ancestor's ranch-style home.
The site where it's located now – next to the Cueto Building – will have to be converted into a parking lot according to the terms of the lease signed with the City of Brownsville approved during their July 2 meeting. The UTB want to have the lot available for its administrators housed in the Cueto building and in the Lucena House sitting on the same lot and housing the United Brownsville shadow government's nonprofit.
According to a missive sent to El Rrun-Rrun by Comprehensive Planning Manager Ramiro Gonzalez, the Stillman Ranch House was never meant to occupy the spot on the vacant lot forever, only until there was a suitable location found by the heirs to locate the building.

"Since before the house was moved here Mr.(Sandy?) Stillman has been trying to identify different sites for the house given the opinion that the house should have more room surrounding it because of its historic location on the Laureles Ranch," he responded to an inquiry. "Its current location is temporary until that site is identified."
We don;t know how many parcel of property the Stillman heirs possess in the Brownsville environs, but we do know that they were numerous. Apart from the Original Townsite and Ft. Brown, the original Charles Stillman finagled plenty of real estate from local land-grant heirs. In fact, Charles had his attorneys tangle the Ft. Brown properties in court until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government should pay the numerous claimants of the property – including Chuck – a lump sum. True to form, Stillman  pocketed the sum for himself and stiffed everybody else.
The he left for New York where he and his descendants (notably James Stillman) hooked up with the Rockefellers and the Morgans and established Citibank. The rest, as the man said, is history.
Ah, but we digress. What about the house?
Much has been made ado about the construction of the eyesore sitting at the corner of Madison and 13th. It was made, goes the story, by shipwrights in the employ of Richard King and Robert Kleberg of planks from seagoing vessels and is of unique architectural design that any city would be only too happy to have  and display to the public.
Add to it the fact that the owner was the "founder" of Brownsville and the educational, cultural and historical" appeal is unarguable. For that reason, the city should provide some incentive for the building to be accessible to all.
Based on this criteria, on Nov. 9, 2012, the director of the Brownsville Historical Society and City Manager Charlie Cabler inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to transport and maintain the building. The house had been shunted to an empty weed-grown lot in Nueces County after the heirs of the King Ranch decided it was en eyesore on the Laureles Ranch section and gave it to the Corpus Christi Historical Society, which did not want it.
Upon learning that some of Stillman's descendants still lived in Brownsville, they reached out to them and offered them the structure.
Under the MOU, the BHA "will be responsible for restoration and management of the Ranch House which includes the cost of relocating the Ranch House to Brownsville at a cost of $65,000. Because of the historical, educational, and general public importance of having the home of the founder of Brownsville in the city he founded, City is willing to contribute $25,000 to assist in relocating the Ranch House to Brownsville."
The BHA also committed itself to "within a reasonable time after its arrival, have the Ranch House open to the public during such regular hours as the BHA deems appropriate. BHA hereby assumes all responsibility for maintenance and operation of the Ranch House."
Why Charles Strillman would want to have a home built for himself in the desolate reaches of the Laureles Ranch section of the King Ranch has been open to speculation among some city wags. We do know that Charles Missus (Elizabeth?) left Brownsville and that the Great Founder stayed for a few years afterward by his lonesome. He spent a lot of that time ensconced at Laureles. Was that his private Shangri-la? We have also learned from local genealogists that there are some north Tamaulipas Stillmans of Mexican descent still running around.
So we came up with a nifty solution.
Since Stillamn started his business and financial empire in northern Mexico and eventually ended in Matamros until the military came to north of the Rio Grande and afforded him the means to dispossess (screw) many people of their land and fortunes here, why not as an act of brotherly neighbors – transfer the Stillman Love Shack to Matamoros for them to have some sort of historical exhibit there. Given the vile rumors generated about what was going on in the love pad out at Laureles, perhaps a place out toward Lauro Villar, say about where Boys Town used to be, would be apropos. Architecturally, it would fit right in!
Anyway, it's worth thinking about it. We hear that the neighbors around Madison and 13th wouldn't mind it one bit for someone – anyone – to remove the structure from their hood and move it somewhere where it's appreciated.