M. E. and Estela Garcia House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the M. E. and Estela Garcia House in Cameron County. Now, some houses are built to look old.

And some houses are built to look old on purpose, with full intention and a designer's blessing. This one falls squarely into that second category, and the story behind it is worth a slow drive past. The house was built in 1960 and 1961, in the Southern Colonial architectural style, for the García family.

Estela Cueto García, born in 1914, and her husband Martin Enrique García, known as M.E., born in 1911. Merchants and ranchers in South Texas, the both of them. Now, the firm of Edward J.

Romieniec and Associates designed the house with what the record actually calls a fiction of age. That phrase alone ought to stop you. A fiction of age.

Because they weren't just gesturing at the past. They reached back into it. Materials were salvaged from the home of M.E.

García's maternal grandfather, Don Francisco Yturria, a house that dated to around 1854. Doors. Floorboards.

Four ground-floor windows. All of it pulled from that older structure and worked into this new one, so that when you step inside, something in the wood and the grain and the swing of those doors carries a century you can almost touch. On the outside, the house presents a double-height Tuscan portico anchoring a central two-story block with a side-gable roof, one-story wings spreading out to either side, all of it frame construction dressed in red brick veneer.

It looks like it's been standing since before anyone thought to ask. And in a way, parts of it have. That's the fiction of age.

And that, right there, is the whole point.

What the marker says

BUILT IN 1960-61 IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIAL ARCHITECTURAL STYLE, THIS HOUSE WAS BUILT FOR THE ESTELA CUETO (1914-1984) AND MARTIN ENRIQUE (M.E.) (1911-1976) GARCÍA FAMILY, MERCHANTS AND RANCHERS IN SOUTH TEXAS. EDWARD J. ROMIENIEC & ASSOCIATES DESIGNED THE HOUSE WITH A “FICTION OF AGE,” INCORPORATING MATERIAL SALVAGED FROM THE c. 1854 HOME OF M.E. GARCÍA’S MATERNAL GRANDFATHER, DON FRANCISCO YTURRIA, INCLUDING DOORS, FLOORBOARDS, AND FOUR GROUND-FLOOR WINDOWS. OTHER FEATURES INCLUDE A DOUBLE-HEIGHT TUSCAN PORTICO FRONTING A CENTRAL, TWO-STORY, SIDE-GABLE-ROOFED BLOCK WITH ONE STORY WINGS, ALL OF FRAME CONSTRUCTION WITH A RED BRICK VENEER. (2018)