National Register Listing

Brownsville City Cemetery and Hebrew Cemetery

Bound by E. 5th St., Madison St., E 2nd St., and Town Resaca, Brownsville, TX

The Brownsville City Cemetery and Cemetery of the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Brownsville and Matamoros (hereafter "Hebrew Cemetery") reflect the evolving physical and social structure in this city on the U.S./Mexico border during the 19th and early 20h centuries. Today, the cemeteries are not only the final resting places of notable individuals, but are also tangible surviving reminders of Brownsville's ethnic, religious, and fraternal groups. The cemeteries are notable for their diversity of design, their funerary monuments (from works of accomplished sculptors to folk design), and the array of community leaders interred there. The character of the cemeteries is visually defined by their fences. mausoleums, plot curbs, grave markers, decorative accessories, and plantings. Occupying three city blocks near the northwest corner of the Original Townsite of Brownsville, the cemeteries reveal the influence of trading partner New Orleans on 19th-century architecture and community planning and development in Texas and relate to social history in Texas because they represent the confluence of Mexican, Anglo-American, Jewish, and Creole funerary practices. The cemeteries are nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, in the area of Community Planning and Development, at the local level of significance, because they reflect critical planning decisions in the period during which Brownsville developed in the 19h century, as well as the ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity of Brownsville. They are also nominated at the state level under Criterion C, in the areas of Art and Landscape Architecture, as an outstanding example of cemetery planning and for their vast and distinct collection of funerary structures and objects. The cemeteries meet the criteria for the historical and artistic value of the cemeteries, and as cemeteries of great age in relation to the settlement of the city, and because their distinct design represents a critical period in the early history of the developing city. Those buried in the cemeteries include persons of individual and collective importance that shaped the region's development.

Local significance of the site:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2010.