Roma Historic District
Historic district in Texas, United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Roma Historic District in Roma, Texas preserves an intact example of a border town in the lower Rio Grande valley. The town was an important port and transshipment point on the Rio Grande from 1829 to the 1880s.
Roma Historic District | |
Location | Properties along Estrella and Hidalgo Sts. between Garfield St. and Bravo Alley, Roma, Texas |
---|---|
Coordinates | 26°24′22″N 99°1′5″W |
Area | 27.5 acres (11.1 ha) |
Architect | Heinrich (Enrique) Portscheller, John Vale |
Architectural style | Classical Revival, Vernacular Mexican |
NRHP reference No. | 72001371[1] |
RTHL No. | 6062, 14283 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | July 31, 1972 |
Designated NHLD | November 4, 1993[2] |
Designated RTHL | 1973 |
The architecture of Roma mirrors its sister city of Ciudad Mier on the Mexican side of the river, as well as Guerrero Viejo upriver. Roma is notable for its buildings of river sandstone, caliche limestone and molded brick, using rejoneado (patterned large and small stones) and sillar (stone laid in an ashlar pattern) masonry techniques. Both methods employ an outer finish of rough lime plaster detailed with bands of smooth colored plaster, characteristic of northern Mexico.[3]
Roma also features innovative use of molded brick, brought to Roma by German immigrant Enrique (Heinrich) Portscheller, who used techniques of flat brick roofing from Monterrey to Mier, then developed a decorative brick used in Roma, Mier, Rio Grande City and Laredo. Portscheller designed buildings with his products and used wrought iron balconies in a manner reminiscent of both New Orleans and Monterrey. Roma preserves the bulk of his extant work.[3]
The historic district includes the 1928 Roma-Ciudad Miguel Alemán International Bridge, a State Antiquities Landmark, as well as the river wharfs and custom house.