2017 0125 Downtown Brownsville Revival snippets

 The Besteiro building on the corner of E Adams and 11th was built in 1911 awaits future rehabilitation.  The roof has already been repaired and it will be scheduled for clean-up work in back area where tar was caked-on backside but just look at the spaciousness of it.  This building has a lot of potential for use in downtown's development as an entertainment district.

 The Putegnat Building which was originally a drugstore built in the early 1900s is undergoing restoration by Balli Management Group, LLC

Pedro shows a refurbished door which was salvaged using new wood.  The outer frame was probably made using local Montezuma Bald Cypress trees of which a few can still be found growing along Brownsville resaca waterway systems.

 These beautifully fashioned door-knob handles and locks will be reused for door.

 A random bag-lady interested in what I was doing standing in the middle of the street was nice enough to inform me that the Stegman building will be done in six months so maybe she is correct?

Inside the Laureles Ranch house which sits in Linear Park we viewed a space where a door was filled in with white painted wood pieces with vertical crevices wood-filled and rough sanded to join surface which will be painted to blend in with outer colors and simulate the tri-color surrounding boards. 

Here the paint mixer uses various flat oil-based colors mixed with a recipe of other hues to match new paint to old.   This is just a test mixing for what will involve several layers of mixed-to-max colors which will eventually cover white areas to blend with blue patina and hopefully make filled-in door space unnoticeable.

We may be returning to some of these locations for future postings - progress reports.  Let us know if you have any story ideas or would like your rehabilitated historic property to be photographed so we can share your story with readers of this blog.