City Hall and Market House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the City Hall and Market House in Laredo, Webb County. Now settle in, because this is a story about a city that didn't just grow, it transformed, and it did it fast. In the early 1880s, several railroad lines came rolling into Laredo from both the United States and Mexico.

And when those rails arrived, they brought something with them: an economic boom, a major one. Laredo's population tripled. Tripled.

U.S. and Mexican immigrants poured in, and city leaders looked around at their modest little municipal offices on the south side of St. Augustine Plaza and said, well, this simply will not do. So they planned something bigger.

Something befitting a city on the rise. Construction of a new city hall and market house complex began in 1883 and finished up in 1884, and what happened next is the kind of thing that surprises people. Community life, the pulse of where folks gathered and traded and conducted their business, shifted.

Away from St. Augustine Plaza. Right toward this new complex.

That's what a building can do when it's built at the right moment. The city hall itself held offices for the mayor and other city officials, chambers for the city council, and an auditorium. But a building like that has a way of collecting purposes over the years.

It became a skating rink at some point. A library. And in 1916 and 1917, it served as temporary quarters for Laredo High School.

Meanwhile, right next door, the market house was doing its own work. It gave indoor retail space to merchants who had previously been out in open-air stalls on that very site. By 1930, the market house had shifted again, converted into office space and an arena for local athletic events.

The complex has been significantly altered over the years, the marker is honest about that. But it is still standing. Still a landmark.

Still a link to what Laredo was becoming in the late nineteenth century, a city the railroads picked, and a city that picked itself right back.

What the marker says

In the early 1880s several railroad lines were built into Laredo from both the United States and Mexico, resulting in a major economic boom for the city. Laredo's population tripled in size with the arrival of U.S. and Mexican immigrants, and city leaders began planning for larger municipal offices to replace a smaller facility on the south side of St. Augustine Plaza. The construction of this city hall and market house complex in 1883-84 led to a rapid shift of community activity away from St. Augustine Plaza and toward this site. The city hall housed offices of the mayor and other city officials, city council chambers, and an auditorium. Later public uses of the building included a skating rink, library, and temporary quarters for Laredo High School in 1916-17. The adjacent market house provided indoor retail space to merchants who had previously operated from open-air stalls on the site. By 1930 it was converted into office space and an arena for local athletic events. Although the city hall and market house complex has been significantly altered over the years, it remains an important landmark and link to Laredo's late 19th-century development. (1990)