Message from the director

Dear friends and supporters,

I hope this message finds each of you well and healthy! We are so proud to be celebrating our Twentieth anniversary since our founding this year! We will be hosting various celebratory events this year so keep your eye out on our social media pages for upcoming event information!

2025 was another successful and productive year for MHC as we achieved our Capital Campaign Fund drive for our addition, “The Annex” and were able to move forward with the project. We look forward to bidding the project out by mid year and becoming “shovel ready” towards the end of 2026. This 2-story building will certainly boost our gallery, storage and work space and be a beautiful addition to the museum and for downtown McAllen.

We continued to work to bring services to our community and maintain our collection and facility in top shape. Rotating exhibits with our partners from Humanities Texas, the Bob Bullock Museum continued to draw large groups of visitors. Events such as book readings and new exhibit openings continue to be well received. After the success of the McHi Class Reunion reception in 2024, we will continue to offer the museum gallery for other reunions in the future.

Our second annual Royal Tea fundraiser was another sold out event. The tea brought in over 100 ladies, many of whom had not been in our gorgeous facility. This event benefits the museum operational and capital needs. The 2026 event will be held on September 19, 2026.

The ongoing McGrinch family event held in mid-December drew over 250 attendees. MHC gifted all the children goodie bags and McGrinch tees and families were welcome to take photos with our friendly McGrinch!

Our museum store, La Tiendita, which is also an online store continues to be highly successful. We offer a range of historical books, books by local authors, videos, postcards, and apparel along with fun McAllen souvenirs, the popular board game “McAllenopoly” and items crafted by local artisans.

Our annual fundraiser: Chuckwagon Dinner in partnership with Macaroni Grill McAllen was, once again, a sold-out event and we are grateful to all our repeat supporters of this dinner fundraiser!

The beautiful “Greetings from McAllen” mural completed in late 2021 continues to drive guests to the La Placita park for photos. Our intention is twofold: to promote the museum and elevate our thriving downtown McAllen for area residents.

I am very thankful for our dedicated staff: Gabriel Elizondo- Marketing and social media Director, Rosie Rodriguez-Museum Services, Lily Hernandez, Museum Services and JT Medina, groundskeeper. As always, we are so thankful for our historian and tour guide, Spud Brown who is also one of our museum founders. Our loyal Board of Directors are also our strong and dedicated supporters. These very special people are deeply appreciated!

As always, we thank all our friends in the community along with the City of McAllen for their ongoing support of MHC! Please visit the museum soon! My warmest regards to each of you!

Elva M. Cerda
MHC Director

Board of Trustees

John M. Kreidler- Board Chair
Elva M. Cerda- Secretary/Treasurer
Danny Boultinghouse
Irma Murray
Kay Jancik
Spurgeon "Spud" Brown, Emeritus Director

Our Mission Statement

The McAllen Heritage Center, Inc. (MHC) is a nonprofit Corporation. The concise mission statement of the MHC is: Our mission is to provide a place to exhibit and assist in the preservation of documents, papers, pictures, works of art, records, maps, artifacts and writings of historical, traditional or cultural value. The MHC wants to perpetuate and educate about those customs of the people, traditions and folklore, which beautify and enrich the community life of historic McAllen, Texas.