Brownsville installs bilingual signs as part of tourism project

Brownsville’s latest attempt to use modern technology to bring history to life — and bring in more tourism dollars — is almost complete.

What started out as a small project to pay homage to local history has turned into a greater project that allows the city to harness the benefit of its historical assets, Brownsville Historical Association Executive Director Priscilla Rodriguez said. The city isn’t stopping there either. There is significant potential in heritage tourism because it has grown in popularity, she said.

“It only makes sense that we would try to capitalize on it and, frankly, I’m surprised that we haven’t as a city come together sooner to do it,” she said. “It just makes sense. Brownsville has the second highest number of historic sites in Texas.”

Heritage tourism is one of fastest growing segments of the tourism industry, and Texas is second only to California as the top states visited by heritage travelers, according to the Heritage Tourism Guidebook from the Texas Historical Commission.

“We’re laying the groundwork for people to really enjoy the downtown, to learn the history, to walk for health reasons,” Rodriguez said. “There’s the community engagement, which is making people aware they have a nice, safe place to enjoy the downtown.”

Heritage tourism is a new industry that the city’s comprehensive plan, Imagine Brownsville, called for, Rodriguez said.

Last month, installation of the bilingual signs for the “Brownsville 21: Discovering Brownsville’s Historic Places” project began. Now, some 77 signs out of about 80 have been put up. The markers are for places deemed locally historically significant and they match up with walking tour routes in and around the city’s historic downtown.

Some of the buildings may not have federal or state markers, but they’ve received their local marker to bring awareness and help preserve the community story, Rodriguez said.

“So many times even though someone may not have gone through the process of applying for a state marker, the site is still significant,” she said. “Maybe an important event happened there or it’s architecturally significant.”

Many of the buildings downtown are architecturally significant,” she said.

The first steps of the project began with funding from the city of Brownsville and Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, funding that helped the BHA develop the Brownsville 21 project, Rodriguez said. In 2007, a shot to the arm for the project came when the city received a federal grant from the Preserve America initiative and some funding from the Department of the Interior.

After several years of work, Rodriguez said the project now encompasses photomurals, digital MP3 bilingual walking tours, six trails, nine touchscreen kiosks and bilingual CD driving tours promoting historic downtown Brownsville, Fort Brown and the historic City Cemetery.

Rodriguez said Brownsville 21 was seen as a pilot project and now the BHS fields calls from other cities looking to adopt their strategies.

The next step to complete the program is the printing of the walking tours map, which should happen sometime in the next three weeks, Rodriguez said.

“There are all these different elements that sort of complement the whole walking tour idea,” she said.

Now, tourists and residents alike can participate in walking tours year-round, instead of having to wait until winter when volunteers can lead tours, she said.Soon the city will set the wheels in motion for a goal that mixes health and history, building on what Brownsville 21 has created. Rodriguez said a committee is working on getting downtown designated as a “healthstoric district.”

“That would be getting people to actually walk the trails and bringing in the health aspect,” she said. “That’s actually the next step.”

Contact the BHA at 956-541-5560 for more information.