The 150,000 visitors who streamed into the Holiday Village Brownsville to celebrate the Christmas season meant more than enjoying the merriment of December. 

It reaffirmed again just how far the renovation of Dean Porter Park has come over the last two decades and the rise of the Mitte Cultural District in Brownsville. The park and district are intertwined in being located next to each other. The whole area where Ringgold and 6th streets intersect includes the Gladys Porter Zoo, the Camille Lightner Playhouse, the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art and the Children’s Museum of Brownsville. With the park in the midst of it all, the area has blossomed into a thriving arts and cultural district.

“You can combine a visit for one (destination) with other activities here,” said Laurie Ray, the chairperson for the committee overseeing the Holiday Village, a collection of cottages that go up every Christmas season at Dean Porter.

In a comment about the Holiday Village that could apply to the Mitte District, Ray says, “We have something for everyone.”

Community Spirit

The creation of the Holiday Village is representative of the community spirit in Brownsville that has revitalized Dean Porter Park and established the cultural district.

The Holiday Village is an all-volunteer effort that began in 2010. For six weeks – beginning Thanksgiving week and going through New Year’s Day – Dean Porter comes alive with nearly three dozen cottages filling up the green space between the Lightner Playhouse and the Children’s Museum. The cottages are eight-to-10 feet high at their base and go up to 14 feet high. The designs include traditional Christmas in colors and ornaments to go with visuals of Brownsville history like one representing the home of the city’s founder, Charles Stillman. 

A local architect, Roberto Ruiz, provides cottage designs at no charge. A local nonprofit, YouthBuild, does the construction work. What started with 10 cottages in 2010 grew to 34 in 2023, with two more planned for the 2024 holiday season. Ray sees the success of the Holiday Village as a reflection of the decades-long work of community leaders like Mellena Conner in revitalizing the park along with the contributions of the Mitte Foundation to develop the green spaces between 7th and 6th streets.

“It’s bringing a lot of people from all over the Valley ,” Ray said of the attractions now found at Dean Porter Park, the next-door zoo, and the emerging cultural district.

Giving Back

The park’s restoration since 2000 and the subsequent development of the cultural district flows from the funding and contributions of the Roy F. & Joann Cole Mitte Foundation.

Roy Mitte grew up in Brownsville in the 1930s and 1940s and loved going to Ringgold Park as it was known before being renamed years later to Dean Porter. He would go on to success and wealth in the insurance industry and resided in Austin. He never forgot his hometown. Before his death in 2007, Mitte made sure a foundation named in honor of him and his wife would invest in Brownsville.

The Mitte Foundation was a primary contributor to the improvements made to what he knew as Ringgold Park. Conner was a key community leader in raising funds for the restoration of the historic park, which is across the street from the zoo. Today, Holiday Village is one of the beneficiaries of the park’s restoration, as is the Children’s Museum, which was built in the early 2000s in a northeastern corner of the park.

A new phase of the cultural district is underway with the construction of the Brownsville Cannery Public Market. It will be an indoor market located between 7th and 6th streets and will serve as a venue where vendors and shoppers can go for fruits and vegetables year-round. 

The Mitte Foundation’s executive director, Coleith Molstad, has called Brownsville “a jewel in Texas that a lot of people don’t know about,” with the improvements made possible by the foundation going toward attracting more tourists to the city. The future with the cannery market is sure to do that along with present attractions like the seasonal Holiday Village.