ANGLOS

The plaque at the Brownsville Central Fire Station, inaugurated in 1928, includes the names of Mayor A.B. Cole and City Commissioners J.A. Cobolini, Burt Hinkley, John Starck and Arthur Hipp. Other prominent names emblazoned on the wall were City Manager A.E. Munday, Chief of Police W.B. Minton, City Attorney G.H.B. Galbraith, City Architect Ben V. Proctor and Contractor W.A. Velten.

West Brownsville and the elegant neighborhoods east and west of Palm Boulevard were Anglo creations. Scan through a telephone directory from 1930 to 1950 and the listings are primary Anglo. Tom Sokot, a former Brownsville attorney who now resides in San Francisco, sent a photo to The McHale Report in which the majority if not all of the beautiful and handsome Anglos faces have turned to dust.

"Attached is a photo of my late mom's graduating class from Brownsville Junior College, later Texas Southmost College," writes Sokot. "She was born in 1920, so I imagine this was taken around 1940. My mom's maiden name was Frances Barnes. Her dad built a lot of homes in the downtown area. He also built the Episcopal Church.

"My mother often said that her family would never have survived the Depression had it not been for the hurricane of 1933," continues Sokot. "The disaster gave my grandfather plenty of rebuilding to do."

By coincidence Dr. Polyphemous Pangloss was leading a walking tour through downtown when he stopped at this imposing home near the corner of Washington and 7th. This impressive house is the only structure on its side of the street.

"The residence was built in 1928-1929 by the firm of Barnes and Kemmy for the family of Celestino Pardo who lived from 1858 to 1953," he explained. "A two story buff brick Spanish Revival style house, it features twisted cast stone columns, iron balcony railings, a Mission parapet and a sun room with arched wood casement windows. Barreda, a native of Spain who came to Texas in 1872, owned a mercantile business and became an influential and commercial leader involved in banking and agricultural."

Anglos once played a powerful role in Brownsville, but the culture has faded from the contemporary scene. From Frances Barnes' class 22 of the 29 graduates were Anglos who called home the neighborhoods around the old Brownsville High School that housed the junior college.

The names at the bottom of the picture--McKee, Lallier, Dittman, Goforth, Tippet, Laursen, Foust, Kimmell, Schendel, Dougles, Yates, Foster and Watson among others--aren't part of the roll calls at Brownsville schools today.

There is not a high school today in Brownsville that has 22 students with Anglo last names. The Anglos are diminishing in numbers. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that this culture is becoming increasingly insignificant in Brownsville demographics? We don't have an answer. We're merely recording a phenomenon.