Old Matagorda Post Office

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's what Duane's got for you on the Old Matagorda Post Office. Now settle in, because this little building has seen some things. A town lot in Matagorda, purchased by a man named Cyrus R.

Sharp way back in 1837. Somewhere on that lot, before 1872, somebody took hand-cut lumber and fit it all together, not with a single nail, but with wooden pegs. Wooden pegs holding the whole thing upright.

That's the kind of building that makes you stop and look twice. For a good while it served as a general store, nothing more. Just a place where folks came and went, traded what they needed, and moved on.

Then 1882 rolled around, and postmaster Andrew August Duffy decided one function wasn't enough for this sturdy little structure. He added the Matagorda post office right alongside the general store. Now the place was doing double duty.

But here's the part that'll make the hair on your neck stand up just a little. If you were ever to step inside those walls, you'd notice the marks. High water marks, running along the interior walls, quiet witnesses to storm and flood damage that came calling over the years.

The building took the hits and kept standing. Then in 1964, a new post office building opened up, and this old pegged-together survivor got moved to a new location and renovated, carrying its water marks and its wooden pegs and all that history right along with it. Some buildings, friend, just refuse to be finished.

What the marker says

This structure was built prior to 1872 on a town lot purchased by Cyrus R. Sharp in 1837 located several blocks east of this site. Constructed of hand-cut lumber and held together with wooden pegs, the building housed only a general store before postmaster Andrew August Duffy added the Matagorda post office to its function in 1882. High water marks noticeable along the interior walls are believed to be the result of storm and flood damage. The structure was moved to this location and renovated following the opening of a new post office building in 1964. (1993)