San Augustin de Laredo Historic District

Laredo's San Agustin district covers roughly 24 acres of downtown, centered on San Agustin Plaza and bounded by Iturbide, Santa Ursula, Convent and Water streets. It marks the core of a town founded in 1755 during Jose de Escandon's colonization of the lower Rio Grande, and the plaza area matches the nucleus surveyed in 1767. No building dates from the colonization period itself, but the houses, shops and church show how the city grew outward from this square. Notable buildings include the small stone and adobe capital of the Republic of the Rio Grande, the Gothic revival San Agustin Church with its five-story tower, and several Spanish colonial vernacular homes such as Casa Ortiz, Casa Vidaurri and the Edgardo Gonzales residence. The district was recognized as the last surviving settlement on the north bank of the river directly tied to the Escandon colonization, and for its architecture and local history.