San Augustine Commercial Historic District
Why it's listed
San Augustine's commercial core is a 14.2-acre district of 71 resources centered on the courthouse square in East Texas. It sits inside the mile-square town plat laid out in 1833, and the original street grid is the oldest surviving feature. The oldest building is the three-story Romanesque Revival Hollis Building of 1889, the only structure on Columbia Street to survive an 1890 fire. Most of the district followed the arrival of the railroad in 1901, which turned the town into a shipping point for lumber and farm products and sparked a building boom lasting into the 1920s. Typical buildings are small one-story brick commercial blocks built by local craftsmen. Landmarks include the 1927 Georgian Revival courthouse designed by T. Shirley Simons, Sr., the 1893 jail, the 1910 Masonic Hall, a circa 1938 bus station, the 1940 Art Moderne Knight Parker Building and the 1941 WPA-built city hall. A stretch of the Old San Antonio Road runs through it.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · catalog entry. Generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29).
| Styles | Late Victorian (Queen Anne); Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals (Colonial, Georgian, Romanesque, Greek, Classical, Spanish Colonial); Modern Movement (Art Moderne, Art Deco, International Style) |
|---|---|
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Architecture |
| Acreage | 14.2 |
| Boundary source | NPS cultural-resource GIS polygon |
| Full listing page | San Augustine Commercial Historic District (property record) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.