Description

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In 1865, Heinrich Portscheller emigrated to Mexico from his native Germany, perhaps motivated by a desire to avoid compulsory military service in the Austro-Prussian War. The scion of a well-known family of masons and master builders, he had the misfortune to disembark at Veracruz during the Franco-Mexican War. Portscheller and his traveling companion were impressed into the imperialist forces and sent to northern Mexico. Sometime following the Battle of Santa Gertrudis in1866, Portscheller deserted the army and eventually made a place for himself in Roma, a small town in Starr County, Texas.

Over the next decades, Portscheller acquired a reputation as a master builder and architect. He brought to the Lower Rio Grande Valley his long heritage of Old World building knowledge and skills and integrated them with the practices of local Mexican construction and vernacular architecture. However, despite his many contributions to the distinctive architecture of Roma and surrounding places, by the mid-twentieth century he was largely forgotten.

During nearly fifty years of historical sleuthing in South Texas and Germany, W. Eugene George reconstructed many of the details of the life and career of this important South Texas craftsman. Containing editorial contributions by Mary Carolyn Hollers George and featuring a foreword by Mariá Eugenia Guerra and a concluding assessment by noted architectural historian Stephen Fox, Master Builder of the Lower Rio Grande: Heinrich Portscheller at last permits a long-overdue appreciation of the legacy of this influential architect and builder of the Texas-Mexico borderlands.

About the Author

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W. EUGENE GEORGE (1922–2013), a widely respected preservation architect and scholar, was the author of Lost Architecture of the Rio Grande Borderlands. MARY CAROLYN HOLLERS GEORGE is the author of O’Neil Ford, Architect.

Praise For…

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“Mary Carolyn George has lovingly captured fifty years of research through documentation and teaching, blending her own scholarship with that of the incomparable ‘Gene’ George and many of his former students, to tell the story of the connection between the Portscheller family in Germany and its translation to the Rio Grande border.  It is a charming story that combines detective work with a celebration of craftsmanship.”—David G. Woodcock, professor emeritus of architecture and director emeritus of the Center for Heritage Conservation at Texas A&M University
 
— David Woodcock

“This book exudes passion—the passion Gene George held for historic buildings in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the passion of Heinrich Portscheller, the man responsible for their unique characteristics, and the passion George had for bringing recognition to Portscheller. The author and his subject were both modest and understated men, but their respective works resonate boldness and distinction. In otherwise harsh landscapes (the Valley and academia), these two gentlemen left marks of refinement and sophistication. Readers will find themselves engaged in a fascinating journey through important buildings, the mind of their builder, and the heart of a remarkable scholar.—William E. Doolittle, the University of Texas at Austin
 
— William Doolittle

“His extensive and meticulous documentation of Rio Grande builders and architects will serve as a foundation for years of future scholarship in this area. While the lower Rio Grande snakes along the southern edge of the American Plains. Fox’s equally impressive survey of borderland scholarship will also become an essential resource for anyone interested in the Texas-Mexican borderland, also for scholars exploring the subsequent expansion of Hispanic culture north across the Great Plains and beyond.”—Great Plains Research
— Great Plains Research