Manautou Building
Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
ENRIQUE MANAUTOU CAME TO TEXAS FROM MEXICO IN 1902. WITH AREA COMMERCE BOLSTERED BY THE ARRIVAL OF THE RAILROAD AND MEXICAN REVOLUTION REFUGEES, HE BEGAN A STRING OF DRY GOODS STORES IN THE LOWER RIO GRANDE VALLEY IN 1913. MANAUTOU MOVED TO BROWNSVILLE IN THE EARLY 1920s WITH HIS WIFE, IRENE G. MANAUTOU. IN 1928, HE OPENED THE E. MANAUTOU DEPARTMENT STORE IN THE HISTORIC MARKET SQUARE DISTRICT. PAGE BROTHERS ARCHITECTS OF AUSTIN DESIGNED THE TWO-STORY CHICAGO STYLE BUILDING OF BRICK, CUT STONE, PRISM GLASS CLERESTORY AND PLATE GLASS DISPLAY WINDOWS. MANAUTOU WAS A PROMINENT CITIZEN AND THE FIRST MEXICAN-AMERICAN TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE BROWNSVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK – 2012
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Enrique Manautou arrived from Mexico in 1902 and built a chain of dry goods stores across the Lower Rio Grande Valley as railroads and refugees from the Mexican Revolution swelled the region's trade. In 1928 he opened his namesake department store in Brownsville's Market Square, a two-story Chicago-style building of brick and cut stone with prism-glass clerestory and plate-glass display windows. Manautou went on to become the first Mexican-American president of the city's Chamber of Commerce.
Why it matters
The building testifies to the immigrant merchants who powered commerce along the border and to the rising civic leadership of Mexican Americans in early twentieth-century Texas.
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Related people
- · Enrique Manautou
- · Irene G. Manautou
Related events
- · Mexican Revolution
Themes & tags
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