2017 0129 San Fernando Clean-up Work with Peek at Basement

Here are a few pics I took while visiting downtown Market Square area.  

 Park Hotel building fountain getting a pressure wash.

 It looks like non-retaining walls have been removed.

 Same area to the left.  Those tin ceiling tiles which look like they have been ruined by years of paint and dirt will be preserved rather than completely ripping them out and replacing with the soft plastic reproduction "tin" ceiling tiles.  Also, there were no tiles of the exact pattern found on the market so they will remain.  How they will be "cleaned" is a mystery for now.

 Stucco is being removed to expose original brick on E Adams side

 Ancient heavy floor joists

Ricardo Carlos of Rival Builders stands over basement area.  It has long been rumored that there were tunnels beneath some Brownsville churches and buildings.  According to Ricardo - there is no trace of that to be found here.

 Here it is -- our first look at basement with no clues of sealed passageways to Market Square.  

 Since there are no official plans drawn up at this time we cannot say how the structure will be used.  For now, it is only a matter of demolishing what is not original to the building and prepping it for the next stage of restoration.  The goal is to save as much of the original building as possible to return it to a historical "look" before it was altered numerous times.  

New planks have been laid upon original ceiling joists.  There was a wood shed on the roof which was not original to the building so it was demolished and removed.  

 Temporary support posts.

The windows are almost refurbished all around the Market Square building.  The planning for the second floor galleries and archival rooms is still in development.  Because the building was completed with add-on construction through various stages of its development and some spaces do not align evenly and additional factors such as walls which can or should not be removed which make reorganizing the building spaces a difficult task.  We'll post another update when we can.  If you're on Facebook be sure to look-up Revitalize Downtown Brownsville for much more photos and frequent updates for this and other ongoing development in downtown Brownsville, Texas.