{"nrhp_refnum":"05000657","name":"Mifflin Kenedy Warehouse and Old Starr County Courthouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"200 Blk. W. Water St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rio Grande City","county":"Starr County","state":"TX","lat":26.38069210100008,"lon":-98.82279998199999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-07-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story buff brick warehouse at the 200 block of West Water Street in Rio Grande City, Starr County, Texas, built between about 1848 and 1856 for steamboat merchant Mifflin Kenedy. It later served as a courthouse, a school and municipal offices.","why_significant":"The building is tied to the steamboat trade that drove the founding and growth of Rio Grande City. It is named for Mifflin Kenedy, who helped bring steamboat commerce to the town, and it served as the first Starr County courthouse. Its design, materials and construction methods are described as extremely rare in the city today.","narrative":"Built between about 1848 and 1856 on Water Street in Rio Grande City, this two-story brick warehouse once faced the Rio Grande, where steamboats landed one block east. Mifflin Kenedy, a steamboat operator and partner of Richard King, used it for goods headed to international trade. Its plain, elongated form and open interior reflect its storage purpose, with walls of buff brick laid in common bond and a hipped roof. Local accounts say it also served as the first Starr County courthouse from about 1850 until about 1884, then became a school until around 1915 or 1940. Doors, stucco, roofing and a 1980s east addition have changed its appearance, but the massing, brick walls and window pattern remain. The county owns it, and the city leases it for municipal court and public works offices. It is valued as a rare surviving link to the steamboat trade that shaped the town.","period_of_significance":"circa 1850-1884","architect_builder":"Mifflin Kenedy (builder/owner of the warehouse)","architectural_style":"No style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Currently used as government offices (Municipal Court and Public Works); condition described as fair but structurally sound, with a large part of its original fabric intact.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.399885-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/9699/40969989/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/05000657_A.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000657/d63630fbdb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000657/d63630fbdb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"montezano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mifflin_Kenedy_Warehouse_and_Old_Starr_County_Courthouse_2012-09-24_22-52-35.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">montezano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mifflin_Kenedy_Warehouse_and_Old_Starr_County_Courthouse_2012-09-24_22-52-35.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40969989","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110002737"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/starr-county/mifflin-kenedy-warehouse-and-old-starr-county-courthouse-05000657/"}