Silverio de la Peña Building

August Furstein was born in Germany in 1828 and emigrated to Mexico, where he changed his name to Agustin de la Peña. In 1855, he married Maria Macaria Chavero and moved to Rio Grande City to start a family, and they had three children: Agustin Pascual, Jose Silverio, and Emilia. In 1886, his son Jose Silverio de la Peña commissioned Heinrich Porscheller to design and construct this two-story brick store and home as a drug store and residence; remnants of an old hand-painted advertising sign remain on the east outside wall, and a customs office stood on the northeast corner. From 1890 until 1957, the building served for many years as the Post Office. Considered perhaps the most significant architectural landmark in Rio Grande City, it is an example of the work of master brick mason Heinrich Portscheller and features detailed architectural embellishments, including a brick parapet, cornice and frieze above a nearly flat roof, a full-width cast iron balcony on the primary façade, wood double-hung sash windows with brick hoodmolds and dentil courses, brick Doric order pilasters at the corners of the primary façade, and flat, raked pilasters topped by corbelled brick lintels around the doors on the front and side elevations. It is designated as a National Register of Historic Places.

Rio Grande City, Texas · United States