Cisneros House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, in Cameron County, there's a house with a story that's got more layers than a good brisket. It starts with two men named Jose.

That's right, two of them. Local architect Jose Colunga, born in 1882, designed the place. And the man who commissioned it, businessman Jose A.

Cisneros, Sr., born in 1887, put his name on it. When the Cisneros House was completed in 1926, it stood as a hallmark example of Spanish Colonial Revival style. Clean lines, tiled pent awnings, the whole picture.

People must have stopped and looked. Now here's where the story gets interesting. Seven years later, in 1933, somebody decided the house needed a little something extra, and a Classical Revival porch got added.

Just like that, the style shifted. What had been pure Spanish Colonial Revival became what the marker calls Eclectic, and that's the look you see today. But those original tiled pent awnings, they're still there.

Holding their ground. Keeping the memory of 1926 alive on the facade. Jose A.

Cisneros, Sr. owned that house until 1945. Then it passed out of family hands. But 1979 comes along, and the Cisneros family bought it again.

Some houses, it seems, just belong to certain people. Jose Colunga, who drew up those original plans, was born in 1882 and died in 1946. He didn't live to see the family come back.

Jose A. Cisneros, Sr. made it to 1963. Long enough, you'd have to think, to know that house on the corner was still standing, still wearing that porch, still showing those tiles.

Some things in Texas, they endure.

What the marker says

Local architect Jose Colunga (1882-1946) built this house for businessman Jose A. Cisneros, Sr. (1887-1963). A hallmark example of the Spanish Colonial Revival style when completed in 1926, the structure's current Eclectic appearance dates to 1933, when a Classical Revival porch was added. Original Spanish Colonial Revival elements, such as tiled pent awnings, remain. Owned by Mr. Cisneros until 1945, the house was purchased by the family again in 1979.