|
Located on Market Square, Miguel Fernandez opened his hide yard in 1890 with the construction of the East 11th Street facade of this building. Fernandez, like many other prominent businessmen in Brownsville, had immigrated to the city from Spain. In 1900, the East Adams facade was added to the building.
The Miguel Fernandez Hide Yard was one of at least four hide yards in Brownsville. A drought in the late 1880s caused area ranchers to bring their cattle to market early, but the cattle market had already hit rock-bottom. Ranchers were forced to slaughter their cattle on the range. This meant that anything perishable - like meat - had to be discarded. The ranchers were left with the non-perishable by-products of cattle: tallow, bones, horns, hooves and hides. Ranchers would sell these non-perishable products to hide yards, such as Miguel Fernandez’s. The hide yards would store the products until enough was accumulated to ship to Eastern markets - something that couldn’t be done with meat. Most of the hide yards also acted as ‘city agents’ for the ranchers, bartering general merchandise needed by ranchers for the cattle by-products.
From the back of the E. Adams Street wing, a brick wall extended from the south side, enclosing the southeast side of the original hide yard; this area is now used for parking. The interior of the building was subdivided for shops in the 1960s.
|
|