Historic McAllen school restored into photography studio

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Angela Diaz-Millis and Marc Millis bought the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School in June with plans to restore it and rent the space to someone who will keep its history alive.

The school originated as McAllen's first elementary school for Hispanics in 1921, with an annex being built in 1927.

Diaz-Millis said not much is known about the school's history. Only a handful of photos are still around from when it was used as a school for Hispanics in the 1920s.

Still, she and her husband wanted to preserve its history and find a way to use some of the building's original structure in a modern way. That's when they realized that the perfect tenant for the annex would be Barbara Delgado and Giovanni Ferrigno.

Delgado and Ferrigno own BD Photography. They fell in love with the large windows allowing for natural light in their new studio, and along with the Millis', they believe that preserving the building's history is important to the McAllen community.

This is not the first time that the Millis' have done their part to restore Rio Grande Valley history.

Since moving back to the area from Houston six years ago, the couple has bought several historic buildings along Main Street McAllen and more recently they bought The La Verne in Brownsville.

"We don't do new anymore," Diaz-Millis said. "Actually we never really have. We don't buy anything that's younger than 1969 and 1977 so it's kind of what we've done from apartments to now commercial spaces...we bring them back to life and not demolish them. That's a big thing for us."

The years 1969 and 1977 were not picked at random. Diaz-Millis said they chose not to buy buildings that were younger than those years because 1969 was when her husband was born and 1977 was when she was born.

They are hoping that while bringing the Theodore Roosevelt School back to life, they can find out more about its history through people from the community.