{"nrhp_refnum":"84001628","name":"La Nueva Libertad","other_names":["Andres Cueto Store"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1301 E. Madison St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brownsville","county":"Cameron County","state":"TX","lat":25.90276242500005,"lon":-97.49410987099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-06-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story masonry store-and-residence with a one-story service ell at 1301 E. Madison Street in downtown Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, built in 1893 for Andres Cueto.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building reflects Brownsville's commercial prosperity around the turn of the century and is an outstanding example of period commercial architecture in the Rio Grande Valley. It shows Spanish building practice, including combined commercial and residential use and an unusual double-layer brick roof. It is also tied to Andres Cueto, a prominent Spanish-born businessman.","narrative":"Built in 1893 on a corner in downtown Brownsville, La Nueva Libertad was a grocery and hardware store with the Cueto family's home above it. Andres Cueto, born in Spain in 1862, came to Brownsville at sixteen, worked for the Fernandez family's grocery, later bought it, and then built this larger store. The two-story brick building has giant-order pilasters, original batten double doors, a dentil cornice and a pedimented parapet carrying the painted name and a carved 1893 date. A one-story wing housed a bakery whose ruined ovens remain. The roofs use two layers of brick over wood, a method common in the Spanish Caribbean. Inside, the pine floors, cherrywood staircase and fireplaces survive. The cast-iron second-floor verandah was lost in the 1933 hurricane. Cueto traded on both sides of the Rio Grande until retiring in 1926. The building remained in his family, which explains its survival.","period_of_significance":"1893","architect_builder":"Builder/architect unknown; built for Andres Cueto","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Locked and vacant until 1957; since then parts have been rented to various tenants. Restoration plans, including rebuilding the cast-iron verandah, have been prepared. The form marks the property as occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:20.839147-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/9714/40971456/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/84001628.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001628/80ca7acf2c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001628/80ca7acf2c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"25or6to4","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Nueva_Liberdad_Cueto_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">25or6to4</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Nueva_Liberdad_Cueto_Building.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100004008","name":"Central Brownsville Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/central-brownsville-historic-district-100004008/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971456","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110001751"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/cameron-county/la-nueva-libertad-84001628/"}