M. & J. Nelson Building

The M. & J. Nelson Building is a distinctive Moderne style commercial building in McAllen, built and owned by Morris Randall Nelson and designed in 1949 for the J.C. Penney Company. Nelson, born in McPherson, Kansas, followed his father’s trade as a carpenter before becoming a builder, property developer, and entrepreneur. After moving to Palacios, where he met and married Ruth Stainbrook, he came with her to McAllen in 1914, three years after the city incorporated. The couple had two children, Jack R. and another son who died in childbirth. M.R. Nelson built commercial, public, and residential buildings throughout McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley, often working with local architect Zeb Rike. The Nelsons were active in First United Methodist Church and were civic leaders who supported local organizations and charities. The thirty thousand square foot, three-story reinforced concrete building has a streamlined Art Moderne exterior finished in horizontal bands of two-tone buff brick with darker cast stone trim, recessed aluminum entry doors, aluminum interior stair rails, and a basement, although planned additional floors were never built. It also had the first thirteen-passenger elevator in McAllen and one of the city’s earliest air conditioning systems. Its top story housed professional and government offices, including Jack R. Nelson Insurance, and it became an architectural and commercial anchor in McAllen’s postwar business district while continuing to serve as a downtown landmark during the city’s dynamic growth.

McAllen, Texas · United States