{"nrhp_refnum":"75001961","name":"Old Brulay Plantation","other_names":["Plantation House No. 1"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Brownsville off TX 4","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brownsville","county":"Cameron County","state":"TX","lat":25.854522936000023,"lon":-97.40026005399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-10-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Agriculture","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of ten brick plantation buildings about 9 miles east of Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, near the Rio Grande levee. It was established by French emigrant George N. Brulay, who bought the plantation in 1870.","why_significant":"Brulay is described as the first to introduce commercial sugar production to the lower Rio Grande valley and the first to use irrigation there. He built the area's first commercial sugar mill in 1872 and later a brick mill and refinery. The complex also has archeological potential and preserves all the major plantation structures together.","narrative":"Ten brick buildings about nine miles east of Brownsville, Texas, mark the site of a sugar plantation begun in 1870, when French emigrant George N. Brulay of Paris bought the land. In 1872 he built what the nomination calls the first commercial sugar mill in the area, producing piloncillo on about 300 acres. He began irrigating his fields soon after arriving, which the document says changed farming in the lower Rio Grande valley. After a frame mill burned, he built a brick mill and refinery and bought refining equipment in New Orleans. A hurricane severely damaged the plantation in 1880. The surviving group includes five single-story tenant houses, a two-story barn and residence, another two-story residence, the mill and refinery, a building with a furnace and chimney, and the main house. The buildings are abandoned and show worn roofs and missing windows, but together they form a complete plantation unit with potential to reveal late nineteenth-century material culture.","period_of_significance":"1870","architect_builder":"George N. Brulay","architectural_style":"Classical Revival elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as abandoned, with missing window panes, boarded windows and deteriorated shingle roofs, though the structures are considered fairly well preserved.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.250247-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/42/9714/40971442/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/75001961.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001961/498023088c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001961/498023088c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Jacinta Quesada","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_37203_-_Flooding_in_Texas.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jacinta Quesada</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_37203_-_Flooding_in_Texas.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971442","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Brulay_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22073224"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/cameron-county/old-brulay-plantation-75001961/"}