M and J Nelson Building

The M & J Nelson Building, at the northeast corner of South 14th Street and Chicago Avenue in downtown McAllen, Texas, is the premier example of the Streamlined Moderne style of architecture in the city. The New York City-based architecture firm of James Byron Bell and William N. Gillette designed the 30,000 square-foot, 3-story reinforced concrete building in 1948 to serve as the downtown location for the J. C. Penney Company department stores. McAllen builder and entrepreneur Morris Randall Nelson and his son Jack constructed the building between 1949 and 1950. The building was designed with a 13-passenger elevator, one of only two or three elevators in local buildings at the time, as well as the first escalator and one of the first air-conditioning systems in McAllen. The M & J Nelson Building was an important component of the revitalization of McAllen's postwar business district, and its architectural style demonstrated the city's receptiveness to modernization and growth. Today it remains as a distinctive landmark in downtown McAllen and a symbol of the town's development as a major metropolis in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It is therefore nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, in the area of Commerce, and under Criterion C, in the area of Architecture, both at the local level.

McAllen, Hidalgo County, Texas

The city of McAllen is approximately 16 miles west of Weslaco and 35 miles west of Harlingen in southern Hidalgo County, Texas, situated on land that was part of porciones 63 and 64, granted by Spain to Antonio Gutiérrez and Juan Antonio Villareal in 1767. Thirty years later José Manuel Gómez established the Santa Anita Ranch in the area, where he raised cattle, sheep, goats, and horses, and in 1800 Spain granted him the land. His great-granddaughter Salomé Ballí, who inherited the land in the early 19th century, married John Young, a Brownsville businessman, in 1848. They proceeded to acquire land in the surrounding area, and in 1852 Young applied for porciones 64 and 65 in southern Hidalgo County. Young died in 1859, leaving his holdings to his widow and son, John J. Young; his assistant, John McAllen, acted as manager. McAllen married Salomé Ballí de Young in 1861, and in 1862 they had a son, James Balli McAllen. They continued adding land to the ranch, which was renamed the McAllen Ranch. Today the city of McAllen is within the boundaries of this ranch.

By 1903 there were scattered ranches in the area, and in March of that year, the Hidalgo Irrigation Company was organized. On 20 August 1904, the Hidalgo and San Miguel Extension (now the Sam Fordyce Branch) of the St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico Railway reached the McAllen Ranch. John McAllen and his son James had donated land in order to bring the railroad to their property. On 5 December 1904 John McAllen, James Ballí McAllen, and John J. Young, with Uriah Lott and Leonidas C. Hill, Sr., formed the McAllen Townsite Company. The new community, which was named for John McAllen, contained the train depot nearest to the county seat at Hidalgo, 8 miles to the south, as well as a general store, a restaurant, and a cluster of 8 or 9 tents. A post office named McAllen was established in 1907.

The new community of McAllen did not grow very rapidly and was rivaled by another community, about 2 miles to its east, established on 16 May 1907 by William Briggs, O. E. M. Jones, and John Closner. The second town came to be known as East McAllen, and the first town was known as West McAllen. By 1908 the Rio Bravo Irrigation Company was finishing a canal in East McAllen, and a hardware store and furniture store were under construction there. East McAllen also had 5 additional stores, 2 taverns, and 2 lumberyards, and its population was estimated to be 300. In 1909 the town's first brick building, the First State Bank, was constructed, and the town's first newspaper, the Monitor, was established. By 1911 East McAllen had an estimated population of 1,000 and nearly 5,000 acres of crop lands under cultivation, producing cotton, alfalfa, broom corn, citrus fruits, grapes, and figs; West McAllen had ceased to exist by that time. In 1911 the town applied for, and was issued, a charter of incorporation under the name McAllen. An economic boom in 1916 created a population increase from 1,200 people to 6,000 by 1920. Also in 1916, border disturbances in the area were such that 20,000 New York state troops were stationed at McAllen.

The first half of the 20th century was very difficult for McAllen residents of Mexican descent, as a consequence of the shift from a Hispanic-dominated ranching economy to an Anglo-dominated farming economy. The transfer of power was evident in the segregation of Mexican Americans, which affected all aspects of their lives. Segregation was most obvious in the sales policies of the McAllen Real Estate Board and Delta Development Company, which made certain that the town was fully segregated. Schools in McAllen were segregated through the fifth grade; Mexican children were not expected to go beyond that level. Not until the late 1920s were segregated junior and senior high schools established. In 1939 Hispanics could be admitted to the hospital but were housed in a separate section in the basement. Between 1937 and 1942 the United States Farm Security Administration and the Farm Placement Service of Texas established a camp in what is now east-central McAllen to house migrant agricultural workers and facilitate their hiring by farmers.

McAllen adopted a home rule charter in 1927. Canning factories, a winery, tortilla plants, woodworking plants, and some oil exploration increased the population to 9,074 by 1930. The town was a petroleum and agricultural chemical-processing center with a population of 11,877 in 1940, by which time it had adopted the nickname the City of Palms. That year there were 430 businesses in the community, 249 of which were stores; local retail receipts totaled $6,225,000 that year. In 1941 a steel suspension bridge replaced the old bridge to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico; the new toll bridge was officially named the McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge. Its construction resulted in an increased tourist trade that made McAllen a winter resort and a major port of entry to Mexico. Oil discovered in the Reynosa area in 1947 brought a large migration of people from the Mexican interior to Texas, creating a new tourist market and cheap labor supply to McAllen. The McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge was the second-largest port of entry into Mexico in 1954.

As traffic increased between the two countries, Mexican citizens traveled to McAllen in order to purchase American goods. The J. C. Penney Company, which had a store in McAllen since 1926, geared its merchandise to the demands of customers from across the border. Today McAllen is one of a few U. S. cities that still has a major department store operating in its downtown. At the time of its construction, the downtown J. C. Penney store catered to people from throughout the Rio Grande Valley, but today 75 percent of the store's sales are to Mexican citizens who shop in McAllen year-round.

J. C. Penney Company

James Cash Penney and William Henry McManus founded a dry goods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902, calling it the Golden Rule. In 1909 the growing mercantile company relocated its headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be closer to major banks and railroads, and in 1914 the Golden Rule Company relocated from Salt Lake City to Buffalo, New York, to simplify the buying, financing, and transportation of goods. Penney stepped down as president of the company in 1917, and it was renamed the J. C. Penney Company in his honor. By that year, the company operated 175 stores in 22 states.

In 1920 Penney's acquired the Crescent Corset Company, its first wholly owned subsidiary, and in 1922 the company launched its oldest private brand, Big Mac work clothes. J. C. Penney Company opened its 500th store in 1924 in Hamilton, Missouri, the hometown of James Cash Penney, and in 1928-only four years later the company opened its 1,000th store in Beloit, Kansas. By 1941 there were 1,600 J. C. Penney stores in operation across the country, with a presence in all 48 states. The company began its first national advertising campaign in 1956 with a series of advertisements in Life magazine, and it issued its first credit cards in 1959. Today the J. C. Penney Company operates 1,067 stores in all states but Hawai'i, as well as in Puerto Rico, and its headquarters are in Plano, Texas.

J. C. Penney and Company opened its first store in McAllen in 1924, on Austin Street and Broadway. The McAllen store was the 568th for the 22-year-old company, and the 25th in the state of Texas, but the first to be opened in the Rio Grande Valley. In 1941 Penney's relocated to a new building at 100 S. Broadway, constructed by local builder Morris Randall Nelson. Later, this building was damaged by a fire stemming from a spill of hot tar on its roof. In 1949 Nelson constructed a new building in the Streamlined Moderne style at Main Street-now known as South 14th Street and Chicago Avenue, with Penney's as its original major tenant. The building was designed by the New York-based architecture firm of Gillette and Bell in 1948. Although other tenants have come and gone from small offices on the building's 3rd floor, Penney's has remained the anchor in this location since its opening in January 1950, and today it is one of the most successful stores for the J. C. Penney Company in the state of Texas, with over $5 million in receipts in 2007.

Morris Randall Nelson, Builder and Entrepreneur

Born on 24 March 1889 in McPherson, Kansas, Morris Randall Nelson was one of four children of Swedish emigrants Ellyse and Axel Nelson. The family moved from Kansas to Texas, making a home in Palacios, and Axel found work as a carpenter. Following their father's lead, Morris- known as "M.R."-and his brother Carl also became carpenters. In 1912 M.R. Nelson married Ruth Stainbrook, and at the encouragement of her uncle, an executive with the Donna Plantation Company in the Rio Grande Valley, the young couple decided to relocate to McAllen, 14 miles southwest of Donna, and there M. R. Nelson began his career as a builder.

In 1916 Nelson constructed a house in the Craftsman bungalow style at 316 S. 11th Street in McAllen, and it remains there today. Early on, however, the couple suffered two major blows: M. R. became ill with tuberculosis, and they endured the tragic loss of a son who died at birth. In 1917 their second son, Jack Reynolds Nelson, was born, and he was to be their only child. Nelson quickly advanced from carpenter to building contractor, and he then advanced to financier and investor, steadily forging a chain of personal successes that were closely linked with the growth and progress of McAllen. As a builder, Nelson is known to have constructed more than 30 commercial or public buildings in downtown McAllen, including the First National Bank, Valley Federal Savings & Loan, Palace Theater, the Nassar Building, and the Federal Building (now La Placita Leisure Center), in addition to several apartments and homes. McAllen architect Zeb Rike designed many of the buildings constructed by M. R. Nelson in the late 1940s and 1950s. A great number of these buildings have since been demolished to make room for multi-story buildings or parking lots."

Nelson was a local philanthropist as well as a shrewd businessman. After being trapped in a roof fire at one of his buildings the original downtown location of the J. C. Penney department store at 100 South Broadway-in 1948, Nelson realized the city of McAllen did not have the proper rescue equipment to save people from fires in the multi-level hospital, tall banks, or department stores. He wrote a letter to the editor of the Monitor, publicizing the lack of the necessary equipment, and he donated funds to help the McAllen Volunteer Fire Department obtain the needed trucks and ladders. Recognizing a need for low-cost housing for McAllen workers, he built numerous apartments with two investors, and they developed the Orange Terrace Subdivision of affordable, single-family houses. After the death of one of his employees, Nelson saw the need for a mortuary, and he established one in McAllen and a second one in Weslaco. He also helped to establish McAllen as a prime recreation center for the Valley when he built and operated the Cascade Pool, a water park and playground with an enormous water Ferris wheel, and the Palace Theater. Nelson later sold the Cascade Pool to the YMCA Boys Club of McAllen and donated $5,000 to help the club start its operations. This spring-fed pool is now operated by the McAllen Parks Department.

In 1950 Nelson was nominated as McAllen's "Man of the Year." In 1962, the McAllen Kiwanis Club recognized him for his outstanding work as a commercial builder in the City of McAllen. In 1963 he was awarded a scroll by the board of directors of the First National Bank for his outstanding craftsmanship in the construction of the bank building and for 18 years of untiring service on the bank's board of directors. Nelson retired in 1961 after suffering a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He recovered somewhat but had several other strokes and remained at home with his wife and nurses before he passed away on 15 December 1965.

The M & J Nelson Building

The M & J Nelson Building, located at 300 S. 14th Street, was one of McAllen's most progressive buildings of its time. Designed and built between 1948 and 1949 for the J. C. Penney Company, this Streamline Moderne structure is known locally as "the downtown J.C. Penney building," and the department store has been its major occupant since its completion. Penney's was located during the preceding eight years in another M. R. Nelson building at 100 S.

Broadway. Opened in McAllen in 1924, the downtown department store was the first J. C. Penney store in the Rio Grande Valley and the 568th in the national chain.

Architects William N. Gillette and James Byron Bell designed the building, and they are known to have designed at least one other J. C. Penney department store building in Alexandria, Virginia. Very little is known about the architecture firm of Gillette and Bell, whose name appears on the set of plans for the building, currently in possession of the Nelson family in McAllen. The plans, dated 22 September 1948, state the firm's office location at 207 E. 32nd Street, New York, 10016. Mr. Bell was a member of the American Institute of Architects from 1948 until his death on 17 July 1967. Bell received his bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1927, and his diploma from the École des Beaux Arts, in France, in 1929. These records also state that Bell completed a grand tour of Europe and Africa between 1929 and 1930. In addition to designing buildings for the U.S. Navy, Bell also designed several hospitals and department stores along the East Coast in the 1950s. It is likely that Bell, with his formal training in Europe, was familiar with modernist styles such as the Streamlined Moderne, which he then employed with considerable sophistication for the J. C. Penney chain in McAllen.

The building exterior was designed in the Streamlined Moderne style of architecture, but the basic form of the building is that of the 2-part commercial block, as described by the architectural historian Richard Longstreth." This type of building is easily legible from the street as having two distinct zones serving two different purposes, with a ground floor dedicated to a major commercial tenant and the floors above devoted to either residential use or, as in this case, smaller commercial tenants. The three-story building had offices on its top two floors rented to such tenants as Zeb Rike, Architect; Anderson, Davis & Hart, Accounting; Alfonso Guerra, Jr., Attorney at Law; the U.S. Border Patrol, and businesses of the Nelson family, including Magic Valley Real Estate and Jack R. Nelson Insurance Company. To the north of the entrance vestibule for the top floor offices, another Nelson relative Polk, Jack Nelson's wife's aunt-operated a lunch counter and soda fountain called the Confectionette. The restaurant served lunch plate specials and ice cream treats to downtown shoppers, and it was in business through the early 1980s." Today this street-level storefront is occupied by a small-appliance merchant.

The Streamlined Moderne style is synonymous with the Machine Age and the early-20th-century fascination with all things mechanical and "modern." Popularized during the 1930s and 1940s, this architectural style emphasizes horizontality as in the colored brick banding of the M & J Nelson Building and smooth curves, as seen in the building's rounded corners and lack of applied surface ornament. The bull's-eye window above the entrance at 308 16 South 14th Street and the vertical fin announcing the presence of the J. C. Penney department store provides a limited ornamental richness to the building in keeping with its sleek industrial aesthetic." The McAllen Monitor dubbed the M & J Nelson Building "the City's Most Modern Building" upon its completion and described it as being "of conservative modern architecture."

To attract business on the store's opening day-Thursday, 5 January 1950-the newspaper excitedly reported that "visitors will see not only one of the finest Penney stores to be found anywhere in the United States but one of the most modern buildings in the entire Valley." The reinforced concrete building was air-conditioned and featured a 13-passenger elevator and an escalator. The civic-minded Nelson made certain to assure the public that the new structure was "completely fireproof and earthquake-proof," and its basement also included a bomb shelter. The opening day celebrations included a large cake created as a miniature of the sleek, stylish new building.

The M & J Nelson Building was remodeled in 1984 as part of a nationwide campaign by the J. C. Penney Company to update its stores. Significant alterations to the interior, including removal of the original aluminum stair rails and the escalator, were completed. The building exterior, however, remains very much intact; only a removable metal cladding was installed over the band of mezzanine windows to accommodate a larger sign. The City of McAllen featured the building on the cover of its first historic resources survey in 2005. The Historic Preservation Council of McAllen designated the M & J Nelson Building as a city landmark in November 2006. A marker dedication ceremony was held at the building on 22 February 2008 to recognize its designation as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

As the premier example of the Streamlined Moderne style of architecture in downtown McAllen, the M & J Nelson Building is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in the area of Architecture, at the local level. For its connection to the national retail giant J. C. Penney Company and its importance to the economic vitality of McAllen's central business district for over fifty years, the building has also been nominated to the National Register, in the area of Commerce, also at the local level.