Filippone Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Two Italian stonemasons rolled into Kinney County, Giovanni B. Filippone, born in 1845, and his partner Giovanni Cassinelli, and between 1883 and 1885 they purchased property right here in Brackettville.

Now, when a stonemason decides to put down roots, you can bet he's not gonna throw up something ordinary. In 1885, these two men built a six-sided limestone block building. Six sides.

Not four, not eight; six. In a town full of right angles, somebody was thinkin' in a different direction entirely. By 1887, Filippone had become the sole owner, and he made the place work double duty: a general store running on the first floor, and his family living up on the second.

Home and livelihood stacked one on top of the other, carved out of this Texas limestone. Then, early in the twentieth century, somebody (likely Filippone or whoever held the place by then) tacked on a five-sided, one-story section. So now you've got a six-sided piece joined to a five-sided piece, and I'll let you work out what kind of figure that makes on the land.

Giovanni B. Filippone died in 1917, and the years weren't always kind to what he built. By the 1940s, the building had been abandoned.

Stood quiet, the way old limestone buildings do; patient, heavy, waitin'. Then in the 1990s, it underwent rehabilitation, and today it stands as an important reminder of Brackettville's commercial heritage. A stonemason builds in stone for a reason.

He knows the wood rots and the years are long. Filippone knew what he was doing.

What the marker says

Italian stonemasons Giovanni B. Filippone (1845-1917) and Giovanni Cassinelli purchased property here in 1883-85 and in 1885 built the six-sided portion of this limestone block building. Filippone became sole owner in 1887 and operated a general store on the first floor, while his family lived on the second floor. The five-sided, one-story section was added early in the 20th century. Abandoned by the 1940s, the Filippone Building underwent rehabilitation in the 1990s and now stands as an important reminder of Brackettville's commercial heritage. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001