Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction
Through photographs, Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction, celebrates the architecture of the Texas-Mexico border region, its craftsmen, its cultures and its climate. The architectural images by Pino Shah provide a journey through 160 years of history and heritage, revealing the border’s built environment as filtered through diverse cultures: Mexican, Spanish, American, German, and French. The photographs highlight the distinctive styles -- Spanish and Mexican Colonial, border brick, Mid-century Modern, Pan American and 21st Century – found in the southernmost region of Texas. These architecturally significant buildings are often culturally and historically significant as well. Pino Shah is a world heritage photographer based in McAllen, Texas and Ahmedabad, India. Stephen Fox is an architectural historian and Fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas provided the narratives for photographs and is as an architectural advisor to the project.
Through photographs, Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction, celebrates the architecture of the Texas-Mexico border region, its craftsmen, its cultures and its climate. The architectural images by Pino Shah provide a journey through 160 years of history and heritage, revealing the border’s built environment as filtered through diverse cultures: Mexican, Spanish, American, German, and French. The photographs highlight the distinctive styles -- Spanish and Mexican Colonial, border brick, Mid-century Modern, Pan American and 21st Century – found in the southernmost region of Texas. These architecturally significant buildings are often culturally and historically significant as well.
Pino Shah is a world heritage photographer based in McAllen, Texas and Ahmedabad, India. Stephen Fox is an architectural historian and Fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas provided the narratives for photographs and is as an architectural advisor to the project.
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1939<br />
QUINTA MAZATLÁN<br />
600 SUNSET DRIVE, MCALLEN<br />
JASON MATTHEWS, DESIGNER-BUILDER<br />
During <strong>the</strong> 1920s and 1930s, affluent families from outside Texas built country<br />
houses in <strong>the</strong> <strong>Lower</strong> Río <strong>Grande</strong> <strong>Valley</strong>, sometimes in <strong>the</strong> midst <strong>of</strong> citrus orchards<br />
or cattle ranches, sometimes on rural retreats. Quinta Mazatlán is one such<br />
country house, constructed by Marcia Jamieson (1891-1963) and Jason Mat<strong>the</strong>ws<br />
(1887-1964) between 1938 and 1941 south <strong>of</strong> what is now <strong>the</strong> McAllen Country<br />
Club golf course. Mat<strong>the</strong>ws, a writer, composer, aviator, archaeologist, traveler,<br />
and right-wing political commentator, placed classified ads in <strong>Valley</strong> newspapers<br />
between 1938 and 1941 seeking construction materials, plants, an “intelligent”<br />
plumber, and adobe masons with job experience in nor<strong>the</strong>rn Mexico to assist in<br />
constructing his architectural homage to <strong>the</strong> traditional cultures <strong>of</strong> Mexico. The<br />
one- and two-story house, built <strong>of</strong> plastered adobe blocks, features tile floors, thick<br />
walls, tile ro<strong>of</strong>s, wood beamed ceilings and extensive use <strong>of</strong> decorative tile and<br />
metal work. The Swiss-born Austin decorative artist Peter Mansbendel executed<br />
<strong>the</strong> relief carvings on <strong>the</strong> front door. Now owned by <strong>the</strong> City <strong>of</strong> McAllen, Quinta<br />
Mazatlán has been <strong>the</strong> McAllen affiliate <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> World Birding Center since 2006.<br />
‘QUINTA MAZATLAN: A VISUAL JOURNEY by Pino Shah and Eileen Mattei<br />
<strong>Architecture</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Lower</strong> <strong>Rio</strong> <strong>Grande</strong> <strong>Valley</strong>: <strong>An</strong> <strong>Introduction</strong>. Photograph © 2017 Pino Shah. Narrative © Stephen Fox
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