County Past
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Cameron County, Texas

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
36historic places
—earliest paper
1848formed
421,017pop. 2020
18cemeteries
1CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 36 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 4 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Brownsville, Port Isabel, Harlingen.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Texas is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Cameron titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

25 of 36 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

36 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Baxter BuildingHarlingenBuilding2019
Brazos Santiago Depot (41CF4)Port IsabelSite1971
Brooks, Samuel Wallace, HouseBrownsvilleBuilding1988
Browne-Wagner HouseBrownsvilleBuilding1977
Brownsville City Cemetery and Hebrew CemeteryBrownsvilleSite2010
Brownsville City Hall and Market HouseBrownsvilleBuilding2019
Brownsville Freight Depot and Warehouse DistrictBrownsvilleDistrict2018
Cameron County CourthouseBrownsvilleBuilding1980
Cameron County Jail, OldBrownsvilleBuilding1995
Celaya, Augustine, HouseBrownsvilleBuilding1986
Celaya-Creager HouseBrownsvilleBuilding1988
Central Brownsville Historic DistrictBrownsvilleDistrict2019
Essey, Lillian and George K. Aziz, HouseBrownsvilleBuilding2021
Fernandez and Laiseca BuildingBrownsvilleBuilding2018
Fernandez, Miguel, Hide YardBrownsvilleBuilding1990
Fort Brown NHLBrownsvilleDistrict1966
Garcia Pasture SitePort IsabelSite1972
Garcia, M.E. and Estela Cueto, HouseBrownsvilleBuilding2017
Hicks-Gregg HouseBrownsvilleBuilding2009
Hollowell, Cleta Friedman and Harry W., HouseBrownsvilleBuilding2019
Immaculate Conception ChurchBrownsvilleBuilding1980
La MadrilenaBrownsvilleBuilding1988
La Nueva LibertadBrownsvilleBuilding1984
Manautou HouseBrownsvilleBuilding1983
McNair HouseBrownsvilleBuilding2015
Morris-Browne HouseBrownsvilleBuilding2006
Old Brulay PlantationBrownsvilleBuilding1975
Palmito Ranch Battlefield NHLBrownsvilleSite1993
PalmvilleSan BenitoDistrict2021
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site NHLBrownsvilleSite1966
Point Isabel LighthousePort IsabelStructure1976
Resaca de la Palma Battlefield NHLBrownsvilleSite1966
Rio Grande Valley Gas Company BuildingBrownsvilleBuilding2022
Southern Pacific Railroad Passenger DepotBrownsvilleBuilding1978
Stillman, Charles, HouseBrownsvilleBuilding1979
The GemBrownsvilleBuilding1991

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Cameron was formed in 1848 (1848-02-12) from Nueces.

CAMERON created from NUECES.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Cameron County population from 1850 to 2020 (Census historical series).

421k214k6,0281850188019201940196020002020
18501860188019001920194019501960198020002020
8,5416,02814,95916,09536,66283,202125,170151,098209,727335,227421,017

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

National Park Service sites nearby

NPS

Park units within about 40 km of the county centroid (from NPS Public POIs; no API key).

SiteTypeDist.
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic SitePark unit12.8 km

Source: NPS National Datasets / Public POIs. The NPS Developer API requires a free key and was not used.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

18 cemeteries and 1 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 18 of 18 listed
NameLatLon
Brownsville City Cemetery25.90955-97.50097
Buena Vista Cemetery25.91562-97.48898
El Azadon Cemetery26.3209-97.85722
Guillen Community Cemetery25.92049-97.38842
Harlingen - Combes Memorial Cemetery26.25482-97.73561
Heavenly Grace Memorial Park26.1684-97.80022
La Capilla Cemetery26.20916-97.82793
La Feria Cemetery26.16041-97.84044
La Leona Cemetery26.26146-97.46443
Longoria Cemetery26.07437-97.82492
Mont Meta Memorial Park26.18246-97.589
Restlawn Memorial Park26.16541-97.79692
Rose Lawn Memorial Gardens25.96943-97.4526
San Pedro Cemetery26.26969-97.76674
Santa Rosalia Cemetery25.8877-97.46082
Soldiers Cemetery26.12563-97.44776
Solis Cemetery26.15809-97.84337
Southmost Cemetery25.8573-97.38998
Historical populated places — 1 of 1
NameLatLon
Clarksville25.95758-97.15275

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Civil War battlefields nearby

ABPP

American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) Civil War study areas near this county.

BattlefieldStudy acresDist.Site ID
Palmeto Ranch14,51828.5 kmTX005

Source: NPS American Battlefield Protection Program Civil War Study Areas (public ArcGIS feature service).

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Cameron County, Texas

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.