Owners seek buyers for historic Brownsville building

BROWNSVILLE - Nearly 30 years after Joseph Fernandez died in an automobile accident, his home on the corner of 11th and East Madison remains eerily vacant.

Antique furniture collects dust in the cold dark interior - a calendar still hangs from the wall frozen on January 1980.

In the front room a photo of Joseph in a gold-flecked frame has been left behind.

"That was when time stood still for this place," said Patti Mayers, one of seven Fernandez descendants and the building's trustee. "It's like walking into the twilight zone."

The historic Old Jail-Fernandez Building, so designated by the city of Brownsville, was built as a county jail in 1883.

After a new jail was built a few blocks away, it was purchased in 1913 by Mayers' great uncles, Jose and Joaquin Fernandez.

The Spanish immigrants converted the jail into a mercantile store, with the brothers establishing their homes on each side.

The counter to their store is still in the building, left behind like many other artifacts.

For decades the Mexican Colonial style brick building was home to the Fernandez brothers.

Now, it is for sale.

The seven descendants and partial owners are spread across the state of Texas.

A notary public and tax preparation service rent office space, but after all these years the building's owners believe it's divided interests have become too cumbersome.

The asking price is $230,000 for the 12,000-square-foot site.

"I wish I could do something with it," Mayers said. "It would make a great restaurant."

The building would require substantial investment to make it inhabitable. Perhaps its greatest asset is the history behind the hurricane-tested walls.

One of the more infamous incidents occurred in 1898, when gunplay between members of Brownsville's Reds and Blues political clubs landed one man in jail and another in the morgue.

The jailed Blues club member wouldn't last long behind bars. A mob formed, storming the jail and dragging his body into the street, where he was trampled to death.

Another sordid affair, known as the Brownsville Affray, involved the 18-month imprisonment of an African-American who had previously served in the Army.

The charges were later dismissed.

But there is plenty of upside, too, Mayers said.

For example, the property's large leafy courtyard would make an ideal setting for an outdoor venue for the right buyer.

Despite the family's insistence that the time has come to sell, Mayers' memories of the old building are thick with nostalgia.

She recalled her days as a child, visiting with family in the Fernandez home, running under the courtyard's Anacua tree and picking grapes from the vine.

She still has clippings from that grapevine.

The Old Jail-Fernandez Building is perhaps best known for the alleged ghost that haunts its chambers.

"We've only had one little incident," Mayers said of the specter. "It's OK, it's a friendly ghost."

Mayers recalled the day the doorbell, a cannonball-sized metal bell, inexplicably began ringing.

Stumped by what was prompting the ringing bell, the family "just decided to blame it on the ghost."

Recently she tried the doorbell, giving several pushes for good measure. Nothing, the connection had been lost.

"It doesn't work anymore," she concluded with a shrug.