DOWNTOWN COTULLA ONE STEP CLOSER TO NATIONAL RECOGNITION

By Marc Robertson

The Cotulla Main Street Program, now in its sixth year of operations, has taken another step towards having the city listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with an application presently under review by the National Parks Service.

Designated a Main Street City in 2006 and marking the occasion with a ceremony attended by Texas First Lady Anita Perry in February the following year, Cotulla stands at the crossroads of South Texas' most significant trade routes and has played an integral part in the civilization, population and commercialization of the region for centuries.

In the heart of the city, today's heavily used roads are primarily occupied by trucks traveling to and from the oil rigs over the Eagle Ford Shale, and while these may bring a new economic boom to the region, previous travelers did the same for the communities that lined the trade routes between the Gulf of Mexico and San Antonio.

The intersection of downtown Cotulla's Front Street and State Highway 97 is designated as a point on the Camino Real, the King's Highway, also referred to as the Old San Antonio Road. Not only did the route lead pilgrims from Mexico to the Missions in San Antonio but it also helped bring some of the earliest settlers to the region, including Native Americans and later explorers.

The vital trade route crosses the Union Pacific Railroad in downtown Cotulla today, and while wagon traffic may have brought settlers to the region in past centuries - as well as the Mexican army of General Santa Anna en route to the Alamo in 1836 - it was the advent of the steam locomotive and the iron rails that brought business to the newly settled La Salle County seat in the late 1800s.

Scene of a true Wild West murder, Cotulla's historic Gallman Building is given new life

Although the ghosts of neither young Sheriff Charles McKinney nor alleged conspirator George Hill are believed to haunt the place, their remarkable lives and grisly end are forever woven into the historic fabric of downtown Cotulla, where hopes of a viable preservation program have been renewed with the sale of the Gallman Building.

When Cotulla celebrated its designation as a Main Street City with a visit by Texas First Lady Anita Perry five years ago, the focus was on the preservation and revitalization of the community's downtown area, specifically historic Front Street, and expectations were high that the town's old buildings would be given a new life. 

Serving as backdrop for the Main Street Program ceremony in February 2007 was the Gallman Building, listed as Cotulla's first brick-and-mortar structure. Taking part in the celebration were several generations of county residents, city and county elected officials, property owners, high school students, the school Mariachi band and the local Boy Scout troop. It was a day on which Cotulla focused new attention on its aging downtown buildings and began reversing more than a quarter-century trend of decay, neglect and demolition.