DOWNTOWN BUILDINGS BUILT WITH THE SANDS OF TIME

By Juan Montoya

The Rio Grande, from its start 1,900 miles away in its headwaters in the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado to where it meets the Gulf of Mexico, joins other rivers along its route to bring the life-giving water to South Texas before it empties into the sea.

The river has been flowing for millions of years, cutting canyons and – before the dams were built downstream – carving new courses through deserts and the plains along its watershed. But water wasn't the only thing it carried. It also carried minerals and silt it picked up along the way.

It is one of the reasons that Ruby Red, and Rio Red grapefruits are red. Those grown in Florida are pale or pink, at most. But grapefruit in the Rio Grande Valley is famous for its blood-red appearance that these minerals and elements – combined with the long growing season and warm climate – produce this valuable crop.  

When the Spanish crown sought to colonize the northern reaches of its empire, it turned to these sands and silt to lay the cornerstone of border communities. And thus was born the manufacture of bricks made from the river sand and silt that the river carried on its way to the Gulf.

From Camargo and all along the river, ladrilleras – or brick kilns – provided the building materials for the early Spanish towns and continued to provide them for towns and cities along the river after Mexico gained its independence from the crown in the early 1800s. 

Camargo, for example, had its ladrilleras that provided the bricks for its buildings, some of which date back for more than a century. A few of them are still standing.

At the far end of the river toward Matamoros, brick kilns also provided the building materials for public buildings and individual homes. A lot of the brick kilns that operated at the turn of the 20th Century are gone, but their product – sturdy long-lasting bricks buildings, remain standing despite a number of ferocious hurricanes that blew away less sturdy constructions of board and timber. 

The Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville, for example, was completed on July 6, 1856, and was built with 250,000 hand-made clay bricks shaped and oven cured in the nearby village of Santa Rosalia. 

This church designed and constructed under the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate who had arrived in the Rio Grande Valley ten years earlier.

So were, for that matter, many of the original buildings that now dot the center of the downtown area, including the Fernandez Buildings, The Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard on Adams Street, and others around Market Square. 

In fact, contractors and building owners seek these original bricks made by local lardrillerias to restore their historical buildings.

But since the Santa Rosalia village was blown away by the disastrous 1867 hurricane and the kilns washed away to sea, the industry died, and the bricks that remain are a finite – though valuable – source.

If you have ever been inside Brownsville's historic Palm Lounge on Elizabeth Street, you probably noticed the intricate brick work behind the bar. The brick work is impeccable and the entire design and work thing was created by the man in the white T-shirt in the photo at right.

That man is a master mason named Mario Sanchez-Morgan. He not only created that scene from basic brick, but has also collected the old brick from buildings which were destroyed years ago when their value for restoration was not recognized. 

He now uses his hoard of river-sand bricks to do work on old buildings downtown, and creations such as the Lone Star design at the Palm Lounge.

There are other bricks, like the ones bearing the letters "US" which were used to build sections of Ft. Brown like Gorgas Hall and the hospital and  morgue. If you look at the sidewalk in front of the Stillman House on Washington Street, these US bricks were used to pave it back in the day.

Others bear imprints of the different kilns, and there are still some that bear a cross, indicating that they were meant for use on the cathedral. (See middle brick in graphic below.)

Pedestrians in downtown Brownsville might not realize it, but they walk among buildings that still stand, some after more than 175 years, made of the sand and silt that has been carried by the Rio Grande and deposited along its banks for thousands of years. In a sense, they are silent witnesses to the history of our border.