{"nrhp_refnum":"77001484","name":"San Francisco Ranch","other_names":["41 Zp 76"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"1 mi. N of San Ygnacio","address_restricted":false,"city":"San Ygnacio","county":"Zapata County","state":"TX","lat":27.058221610000032,"lon":-99.43536049399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-03-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A ranch site of about five acres with two single-story Mexican colonial style sandstone houses, built about 1874 as living quarters for a ranching homestead, near the Rio Grande about 1.6 kilometers north of San Ygnacio in Zapata County, Texas.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the houses represent late 19th century Hispano-Mexican construction, once common on the Texas side of the border but now rare. The site is also an example of a Mexican-American ranch in an area dominated by Anglo-Texans, reflecting Hispano-Mexican contributions to the Texas cattle industry. The larger house keeps well-preserved troneras (rifle loopholes) of a colonial-era technique, and the site may offer archeological information.","narrative":"Two small sandstone houses stand near the Rio Grande, a short distance north of San Ygnacio in Zapata County, Texas. Built around 1874 as living quarters for a ranching homestead, they were originally flat-roofed casas de terrado, later fitted with hipped roofs of tin and wood shingle. The walls are locally quarried sandstone, dressed and scored for plastering, with whitewashed plaster still visible inside and out. The larger house has two rooms, a flagged porch, carved medallions and a date stone reading 1874. It also has ten troneras, or rifle loopholes, a colonial-era defensive feature closely matching those at Mission San Francisco de la Espada in San Antonio. Neither building has windows. The ranch is considered significant as a rare surviving example of late nineteenth-century Hispano-Mexican construction on the Texas side of the border, and as a Mexican-American ranch in an area dominated by Anglo-Texans. Its materials may also support archeological study of border life.","period_of_significance":"1874","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mexican (Mexican colonial; Hispano-Mexican casas de terrado)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied; the form states the buildings retain much of their original plaster and that the roofs were altered to hipped forms over original flat roofs.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.290761-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/49/9740/40974049/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/77001484.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40974049","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109999993"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/zapata-county/san-francisco-ranch-77001484/"}