Manautou House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little color on the side. Somewhere in Brownsville, Cameron County, there stands a house that carries a story in every roofline. The Manautou House.

And to understand what makes it special, you've got to start with the man whose name it bears. Enrique Manautou, born in 1885, came up from Mexico and planted his roots deep in Brownsville soil. Deep enough that he rose to become one of the city's most prominent retail merchants and civic leaders.

That's not a small thing in a border town full of ambition and hard work. That is the top of the hill. In 1925, Manautou decided it was time to build something worthy of his family, and he hired a Brownsville architect named Edward Guy Holliday, born in 1891, to make it happen.

Now Holliday gave him something rare. Not just a fine house, but a genuine Prairie School style residence, the kind of design that was making waves far to the north, and here it was taking shape in the South Texas sun. A hipped tile roof with broad eaves, the whole thing sitting there like it knew exactly what it was.

And what it was, was one of the rare Texas examples of that Prairie School style anywhere in the state. Enrique Manautou passed in 1962, but here's the part that lands quiet and true. His family kept right on living there.

Didn't leave. Didn't let the house go cold. The Manautou House stayed a home.

And in Brownsville, that's exactly what a landmark ought to do.

What the marker says

Enrique Manautou (1885-1962) had this residence built for his family in 1925 by Brownsville architect Edward Guy Holliday (1891-1961). A native of Mexico, Manautou became one of the city's most prominent retail merchants and civic leaders. Manautou's family continued to reside in the house after his death. The Brownsville landmark features a hipped tile roof with broad eaves and is a rare Texas example of the Prairie School style of architecture.