Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction

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1884 MANUEL GUERRA BUILDING 702 PORTSCHELLER STREET, ROMA HEINRICH PORTSCHELLER, ARCHITECT-CONTRACTOR Outlining a half-block on Convent Street, Roma’s historic broad street, is the twostory commercial house built in 1884 by Manuel Guerra (1856-1915), the general merchant and rancher from Mier, Tamaulipas, who became political boss of Starr County in the early twentieth century. Guerra’s store and house is the most commanding work of architecture in Roma, constructed by the German immigrant brick mason, builder and architect Heinrich “Enrique” Portscheller (1840-1915). The Guerra House sits on rising ground, turning a chamfered corner (un chaflán) toward the river and echoing the chamfered corner entrance of Portscheller’s Ramírez House across Portscheller Street. A cast-iron balcony and shuttered openings framed with brick architraves endow the building with its graceful presence. In 1993, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Conservation Fund and the Meadows Foundation of Dallas embarked on the Roma Restoration Project. The Meadows Foundation provided funding to acquire the Guerra House and eight other buildings in the Roma National Historic Landmark district. In 1996, specialists from the Parks and Wildlife Department rehabilitated the Guerra House with ISTEA funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2001, descendant Jorge Luis Guerra bought the Guerra House back from the Conservation Fund. Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction. Photograph © 2017 Pino Shah. Narrative © Stephen Fox
1886 SILVERIO DE LA PEÑA BUILDING 423 E. MAIN STREET, RÍO GRANDE CITY HEINRICH PORTSCHELLER, ARCHITECT-CONTRACTOR The business and dwelling house of Silverio de la Peña is Heinrich “Enrique” Portscheller’s masterpiece. As Portscheller’s biographer W. Eugene George writes, it exhibits the most ambitious and varied array of classical detail executed in molded brick of any of Portscheller’s buildings. The cornice atop the building is composed of brick roll molding, with a horizontal dentil course running above a horizontal Doric frieze. Stacked, fluted columns are stationed at each corner on the street faces of the building (doubled at the street intersection), with an intermediate pair subdividing the asymmetrically organized Main Street façade. Most openings are framed with brick architraves. The street doors facing Main Street are capped with arches fitted with delicate wrought iron fanlights. Brick framing is used to group the openings above. The Main Street arches are inscribed with “S,” “P,” and “1886.” The Peña House is Portscheller’s version of the Matamoros merchant’s house, a two-story brick house type, configured around an interior patio, that began to be built in Matamoros in the 1820s and ’30s. In the 1870s, examples of the Matamoros merchant’s house type began to be constructed in upriver communities: Hidalgo, Río Grande City, Camargo, Roma, Mier and Laredo. Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction. Photograph © 2017 Pino Shah. Narrative © Stephen Fox
Page 2 and 3: THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE LOWER RIO G
Page 4 and 5: 1841 NEALE HOUSE (BROWNSVILLE ART L
Page 6 and 7: 1869 POST HOSPITAL, FORT BROWN (ADM
Page 10 and 11: 1899 OBLATE CHAPEL LA LOMITA PARK,
Page 12 and 13: 1927 SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES PASSENG
Page 14 and 15: 1931 UNITED STATES POST OFFICE, COU
Page 16 and 17: 1939 QUINTA MAZATLÁN 600 SUNSET DR
Page 18 and 19: 1959 ECHO MOTOR HOTEL, 1903 S. CLOS
Page 20 and 21: 1964 FIRST NATIONAL BANK BUILDING (
Page 22: 2015 PERFORMING ARTS COMPLEX, UNIVE

Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction

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