Fort Brown Cavalry Barracks

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's what this building has seen. This one-story brick structure standing here in Cameron County has had more lives than most folks dare count. It goes back to the rebuilding of Fort Brown after the Civil War, when cavalry units moved in and made it home.

Cavalry. The kind of outfit that doesn't stay put, doesn't stay quiet, and doesn't leave a place looking the way they found it. And yet, this building held.

It kept holding through the years, right up until World War I came along and changed everything. No more cavalry. Instead, the building shifted roles, serving as a quartermaster warehouse and commissary.

Same walls, whole different business. Then World War II came and went, and when it was over, the building was closed. Closed, but not forgotten.

Private industry leased it for a stretch, keeping the old place in use, until Texas Southmost College came along and purchased it outright. Now, if you step back and really look at it, the architecture tells its own story. One story of brick, laid out in an elongated T-plan, with a central entry set beneath an arched opening, and reconstructed shed-roof porches running along the sides.

It's the kind of building that doesn't shout. It just stands there, solid and patient, having outlasted wars, warehouses, and everything in between.

What the marker says

This building, associated with the rebuilding of Fort Brown after the Civil War, housed cavalry units until World War I, when it served as a quartermaster warehouse and commissary. Closed after World War II, the building was leased by private industry until purchased by Texas Southmost College. The one-story brick structure features an elongated T-plan, with a central entry through an arched opening, and reconstructed shed-roof porches.