Fernandez, Miguel, Hide Yard

The Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard was built in two stages between 1890 and 1900 in downtown Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of Texas in the lower Rio Grande Valley. The building is eligible under Criterion A for its association with commercial activities important to the region. Also eligible under Criterion C as a local example of late 19th-century Rio Grande Valley commercial architecture, the vernacular building exhibits classically derived characteristics.

The Valley is a distinctive region where the Rio Grande flows between two countries but does not separate them, nor does it separate their history. Miguel Fernandez began his hide yard in 1890 when he and his brother Jose dissolved their partnership in an import-export business after immigrating to Brownsville from Spain. The Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard, adjacent to downtown Brownsville's Market Square, was one of the first hide yards established in Brownsville. At least three other hide yards existed in Brownsville. Henry M. Field operated a hide yard between 10th and 11th streets on East Monroe Street. Michael Schodts Lumber, Bone, and Hide Yard were next to Field's, also between 10th and 11th streets on Jackson, covering an entire city block. Later, the Caffarelli brothers began a hide yard on East Levee Street.

Hide yards such as these began to proliferate in the late 19th century when drought adversely affected the cattle market and, combined with calamitous prices, began dictating ranch strategy. As Tom Lea describes in The King Ranch, "...lack of rainfall brought the crisis to many western ranching areas, forcing huge numbers of gaunted cattle into a market which had already collapsed." The severest drought period the Rio Grande Valley suffered culminated in 1891-92 forcing huge numbers of cattle, worth no more than about $5 a head into the depressed economy. These low market prices for live cattle made it necessary for ranchers to slaughter their cattle; render the tallow; bleach the bones, horns, and hooves; and dry and bale the hides. In some cases, the ranchers would salvage hides from dead animals on the range. A businessman like Fernandez, with a bone and hide yard, would store these byproducts until he had sufficient quantities for shipment to processors in Eastern markets.

Hide yard owners like Fernandez would also stock general merchandise for local rancheros, according to local tradition. Goods delivered to hide yards in the valley probably came from sources as far away as New York and New Orleans. Transactions at hide yards usually involved little cash; ranchers would generally trade or barter their hides and bones for supplies such as rope, hardware, wire, and tools. Hide yard bookkeeping systems frequently consisted of a notebook, called a cartilla, in which the hide yard owner tallied customer credits like hides or bones against debits like dry goods, hardware, or other purchases.

According to local tradition, transactions here that did involve cash were often related to Fernandez's activities as a private banker. He possibly secured some of the ranch and land properties he acquired with profits from these transactions or perhaps from defaults on loans.

An extant example of late 19th-century commercial architecture in the lower Rio Grande Valley, the architecture of the Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard is rich with Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American cultural heritage. Very early Spanish colonial and Mexican provincial commercial buildings along the Rio Grande probably evolved from late 18th-century structures, generally unadorned cubes constructed of adobe or jacal. This trend appears to have been set by the 1850s when the commercial buildings in early settlement areas (San Ygnacio, NR 1973; old Guerrero, Mexico) reflected the use of course-stone load-bearing walls, hand-hewn wood lintels, and double doors, and shallow parapets concealing flat roofs drained by canals or gabled thatched roofs. With affluence came the addition of decorative details such as quoins, cornices, and, occasionally, wood door molds that often were based on pattern books widely distributed in the late 19th century. The preferred location for these buildings was a prime, corner lot on the central plaza. The preferred form was either an L-plan that could enclose a private area or a rectangular plan. Both plans would be fenestrated with symmetrically placed double doors opening to the street.

By the late 19th century, construction techniques evolved to use double wythe brick load-bearing walls, machine-sawn wood doors and window surrounds, while continuing to employ earlier construction techniques like concealing flat or hipped roofs. While the preference for corner locations and rectangular- or L-plans continued, construction with brick instead of wood or adobe allowed designers to build 2-story structures and to add cornices and pilasters embellished with corbelled brick. In Roma, northwest of Brownsville, bricks were used for entire walls and classical entablatures with moldings and dentils surmounting the openings. Examples of brick architecture in Roma are the Manuel Guerra House and Store and commercial buildings in the Roma (Roma-Los Saenz) National Register Historic District.

Heinrich Portschiller (1840-1915) constructed many of the buildings in the Roma Historic District which is attributed to the introducing of classical details in molded brick, probably from pattern books. Local builders emulated his renowned craftsmanship and innovative style all along the Rio Grande. He served in the Prussian and Mexican armies, immigrating to Mexico in 1883 and then to Roma, Texas. His influence on the Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard is evident in conjunction with the prevalent Spanish Revival styles that appeared in late 19th century Mexico and other structures Portschiller built in the lower Rio Grande Valley. His buildings and other similar structures all have double-wythe brick load-bearing walls, machine-sawn wood doors and window surrounds, a tall parapet concealing a flat or hipped roof, simple details, plain capitals, dentil moldings, and a corner location.

The Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard displays these typical, late 19th-century, Rio Grande Valley architectural characteristics. Constructed in two stages almost identical in form and detail, the L-shaped building sits on a prominent corner. Exhibiting a classically derived projecting brick entablature and symmetrically placed fenestration, the building employs double-wythe brick load-bearing walls and tall parapets concealing a flat, sloped roof.

After his father's death in 1904, Miguel Fernandez Jr. inherited and continued operating the family business. Miguel Fernandez Jr. became not only a merchant, but also a banker, cotton gin operator, landowner, and developer. He served as Vice President of the Merchants National Bank, and as a city alderman during his early career.

Profits derived from the hide yard declined during Miguel Fernandez Jr.'s ownership, partially due to the competitors' practice of extending credit to area ranchers, according to Antonio Gomez, grandson of Miguel Fernandez Jr. As he related, the Caffarelli brothers extended credit to ranchers on a regular basis. Gomez also suggested that when his grandfather's and father's generations died, the new, younger ranchers did not feel the same obligation to trade with the more established hide yards.

A stipulation in Miguel Fernandez Jr.'s will provided that the hide yard could not be sold until after his youngest child died. Thus, the building remained in the Fernandez family's ownership until 1984 when it was auctioned to the present owners.

The Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard is one of the few remaining intact sites and the only remaining hide yard site in Brownsville's original townsite. Also one of the few remaining buildings that composed Market Square, the historic core of downtown Brownsville, the hide yard was the only 1-story building that ever existed on the square. Other similar extant buildings include La Madrilena (NR 1988), the most highly detailed local example of lower Rio Grande Valley commercial architecture, and El Globo Nuevo at 1502 East Madison Street.

Currently, the Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard is divided into several small retail businesses. Recent stabilization and exterior cleaning removed paint applied over the last few decades.

The Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard is an important vernacular example of late 19th-century Rio Grande Valley commercial architecture that features classically derived characteristics. The hide yard is representative of Miguel Fernandez and his trade.