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Cameron County was organized in 1848 and named for Scot Ewen Cameron of the Texas Revolution and the infamous Black Bean Affair of the Mier Expedition. Cameron got a white bean but was shot by Santa Anna on the way to Mexico in 1843. Brownsville honors Maj. Jacob Brown, who died while defending the fort in the early days of the Mexican War |
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1912 Courthouse |
1978 Courthouse |
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1912 Courthouse This classically styled public building has been central for Cameron
County government for nearly a century. Texas and Mexico both claimed this
area after 1836. The Texas Legislature created Cameron County in 1848, even
before the land was officially made part of Texas and the U.S. by the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Named for Scottish-born Ewen Cameron (c. 1811-1843), a
soldier killed during the Mier Expedition, the county was one of the largest
in the state until additional counties were later carved from its territory.
Santa Rita (5 mi. NW) was the first county seat before voters chose
Brownsville in Dec. 1848. For a generation there was no formal courthouse,
as county officials conducted business in homes and rented commercial space.
Cameron County built its first courthouse in 1882-83 at 1131 E. Jefferson,
conducting business there for thirty years before the Rio Grande Masonic
Lodge AF&AM No. 81 bought the building. In October 1911, citizens of the
growing county voted 1058-148 in favor of a new $200,000 courthouse. San
Antonio architect Atlee B. Ayres (1873-1969) designed |
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 1978 Courthouse 3-story brick structure with terra cotta detail; interior features Classical and Sullivanesque detail in plaster; beautiful art-glass rotunda dome skylight not visible from exterior. |
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