BROWNSVILLE – Lawrence Löf learned to make do in the 1960s, helping his college professors patch together a research station in the cloud forests of northern Mexico with student labor and discarded building materials.

ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN

Outside the Commandant's Quarters, Raul Quintanilla carries a ladder as restoration continues on the 1860s Fort Brown building that was redone in the 1930s.

Now a professor himself at that college-turned-university, Mr. Löf is using what he learned to save this border town's endangered historic buildings.

With his own volunteer time and financial backing from the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, he is salvaging the past – on a budget – while training students in historic restoration.

Already, Mr. Löf and company have resurrected two downtown mercantile buildings, a 1912 residence and a cottage that is one of Brownsville's oldest remaining wood structures. Students are learning "old world craftsmanship" at the 1860s Fort Brown Commandant's Quarters on campus and have launched an off-campus rescue mission to save one of the country's "most endangered historic places."

The 1937 George Kraigher House, designed in the international style by world-famous architect Richard J. Neutra, was designated "most endangered" in 2004, says Mr. Löf, who confesses he's got a soft spot for crumbling old buildings.

"We saved this property, not in the last hour, but in the last few minutes of its salvageable life," he says of the once graffiti-scarred residence, which the university recently leased from the city of Brownsville.

History is a "free time" passion for Mr. Löf, who also serves as professor of biology at UTB/TSC, director of the university's Rancho del Cielo field stations and president of the private, nonprofit Gorgas Science Foundation, which supports education and conservation projects.

The university has duplicated his model for restoring old buildings – using paid student workers and federal restoration guidelines – several times over, for less than half what a private contractor would charge.

Last year, the university began offering formal job training in historic restoration, with a program that will open soon to community do-it-yourselfers.

Mr. Löf is backed by a "community university" that moved its campus to the site of an old frontier fort after World War II and still uses the original Fort Brown hospital, morgue and cavalry buildings as offices and classrooms. Texas Southmost College partnered with the University of Brownsville in 1991 and still teaches carpentry along with physics and engineering.

Mr. Löf traces his interest in history and handiwork to the 1960s, when the college was building its Rancho del Cielo field station at the top of a mountain in Mexico's Tamaulipas state. Money was scarce. And Mr. Löf recalls pulling windows from demolished Fort Brown stables and barracks out of the trash and helping his professors haul them up the mountain.

Those virtues were useful again in 1997, when this already-experienced carpenter led a private community effort to save the 1877 Alonso Building, an elegant commercial structure in downtown Brownsville that now houses his Gorgas Science Foundation. The building demonstrates a blending of architectural trends in early Brownsville, including master brickwork from northeastern Mexico and touches of ornate cast iron borrowed from New Orleans.

University officials approached Mr. Löf about replicating his success. Soon, students were rebuilding windows, repairing wainscoting and uncovering old fireplaces:

• At the 1912 Young House, which now houses the UTB/TSC Development Office;

• At the 1893 Andres Cueto Building, which houses its Center for Civic Engagement;

• At the post-Civil War Lucena House, which is home to the UTB/TSC construction office;

• And at the old post hospital which now serves as the president's office.

Brownsville officials say those buildings never would have survived without the university or been as faithfully restored without Mr. Löf. UTB/TSC's Veronica Mendez, whose "new" office has charmingly slanted floors and exposed original wood, says he is leaving a priceless legacy.

"We were neglecting our history in this community and now, with the work that he's done, we can reclaim our heritage," says Ms. Mendez, a campus construction official.

At the Commandant's Quarters, home to top Fort Brown officials as well as college presidents until the 1970s, students are currently at work excavating an 1860s pearl from its 1930s shell.

"I like the old stuff," says Raul Hernandez Jr., 31, who started out with Mr. Löf's restoration brigade nearly a decade ago and now supervises student workers at the gutted residence. "You've got to slow down and look at the building. This building is going to tell you the way it was done."

Respect for time-honored techniques, materials and "ambiente" is important here. Mr. Löf and his students left smoke stains on the ceiling of an old bakery that's been reborn as a conference room at the Cueto complex – complete with preserved beehive ovens. And when asked to repaint battered brickwork and scarred wooden doors original to the 1893 grocery store, he answered: "Over my dead body."

"I let the building tell me its story," says Mr. Löf, who puts a biologist's observation skills to use with every new project. "All the clues are there."

Karen Hastings is a freelance writer based in Harlingen.