Terri Myers has visited communities throughout the Rio Grande Valley – and Texas – as a historical preservation consultant and has a positive assessment of Mercedes after a recent visit.

“I see a lot of potential in Mercedes,” said the Austin-based Myers, who is the principal and historian of Historic Preservation Consulting.

Myers assisted city and community leaders in hosting an early March meeting at the Mercedes Public Library. Residents were invited to share their views on identifying buildings and homes worthy of preservation and protection. Myers has done such meetings in many communities and came away impressed by what she heard in Mercedes.

“People were engaged,” she said. “They gave us some good information on what they thought. We got a long list (of buildings) to look at and examine.”

Myers was hired by the city to work with the Mercedes Historic Preservation Commission in crafting a comprehensive survey of historical structures in the community. The preservation commission is a seven-member advisory board appointed by the Mercedes City Commission to conserve historic landmarks and districts that represent distinctive elements of local history.

In Mercedes, Myers says her early observations are that buildings and homes along south Texas Avenue, south Missouri Avenue and south Ohio Street have noteworthy historical elements. She is perhaps most impressed with historical educational buildings that include the old red-brick Mercedes High School and a nearby junior high school building that dates to the early 1900s.

“The schools far-and-away are the most impressive,” Myers said. “They are so intact and have a real sense of campus in the way the buildings face each other.”

‘Checking All Of The Boxes’

A comprehensive survey is a necessary first step to developing formal plans in seeking state and federal designations for local historic buildings and districts.

State initiatives like the Texas Main Street Program provide technical expertise and resources in using historic preservation to encourage downtown revitalization. To gain those sorts of distinctions and recognition takes documentation. Cities developing comprehensive surveys and plans are essential to offering private sector investors historic tax credits in the preservation of historical structures.

Getting to that level requires additional assistance from knowledgeable sources such as what Myers provides.

“It’s so helpful to have this sort of help,” said Gabriel Ozuna, who is on the board of the Mercedes Historical Preservation Commission. “We only have so much expertise ourselves.”

Ozuna is also the chairman and historic preservation officer for the Hidalgo County Historical Commission. He says getting buildings and districts formally recognized by state and federal agencies is essential to historical preservation.

“You get recognized and then you can plan out steps 1, 2 and 3 you need to take,” he said. “Being able to offer historic tax credits makes it much easier to work with investors.”

With certified historic structures, federal income tax credits of 20 percent can be offered to encourage the private rehabilitation of income-producing historical structures. A historic building by federal standards goes back to the mid-1970s and eras preceding that decade. Myers has done historical surveys for several RGV communities – including Mission and McAllen – and says Mercedes compares favorably in its inventory of historical buildings.

She says Valley communities share commonalities in often getting their starts from being located along railroad lines and being founded by land companies that arrived here in the early 1900s. A Hispanic heritage is another common link, Myers said. Putting all that information together along with a formal listing of historic buildings “gives us the rationale for developing a comprehensive survey and plan,” she said.

Mercedes intends to do just that, said Marisol Vidales, the city’s library director, who is also a local preservation officer.

“Everything is moving in the right direction,” Vidales said. “We’re checking all of the boxes to move forward.”

- Ric Cavazos

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