Manuel Guerra Building - Roma Texas
by Debra Martz
Title
Manuel Guerra Building - Roma Texas
Artist
Debra Martz
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Manuel Guerra Building - Roma Texas by Debra Martz This building, located on the Plaza of the Roma Historic District, served as both residence upstairs and a business/store downstairs. Manuel Guerra was a banker, rancher, and Democratic leader in Starr County politics for more than a decade. His building was built in 1884 by Enrique Portshceller who had entered into an agreement with Roma residents to produce salmon and buff-colored sand-struck brick for the buildings of Roma's prominent merchant class. Eventually, he developed techniques for molding brick into intricate classical cornice and frieze motifs. From City of Roma www.cityofroma.net/about.html
In November 1993, the 9-square block area around Roma Plaza was designated a National Historic Landmark District, the highest designation for historic properties in the U.S. Tracing its roots to the Spanish Colonial Colonists in the 1760's, Roma contains physical reminders of over two centuries of Texas/Mexico borderlands heritage. Roma's early history is rooted in the Spanish colonial period. In 1746, Jose de Escandon received permission from the Spanish Crown to colonize Nuevo Santander, which extended from the Sierra Madre Oriental to the Gulf of Mexico and from the rainforest of Tamaulipas northward beyond the Rio Grande. By 1753,Escandon had founded the towns of Camargo, Reynosa, Revilla and Mier south of the Rio Grande and Dolores on the north bank. Followed by Laredo in 1755. The Roma National Historic Landmark District contains over 30 structures built before 1900. Each is a monument to the courageous, pioneering spirit of Spanish Colonial and Mexican settlers and the decades of subsequent prosperity as an important commercial center for this area of the Texas/Mexico borderlands.
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March 1st, 2017
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