Sunday, February 3, 2013

CITE OF ROMA, TEXAS…FOUNDED 1765

Saturday, February 2 - Our second stop of our "Making Memories With Friends" tour was in Roma, Texas.

history of Roma

In November 1993, the 9-square block area around Roma Plaza was designated a National Historic Landmark District, the highest designation for historic properties in the U.S. There isn't much going on in "downtown" Roma any longer. Our group decided to take the self-guided walking tour to understand the town better. There are over 30 historic building in Roma.

The plaza

There isn't much left of the Plaza.

The plaza

Manuel Guerra residence and store was built in 1884. The prominent two-story structure is the crown jewel of restored buildings in Roma.

Guerra store

Across from City Hall is a remarkable building once dubbed a "cantina"(bar). Roma residents would arrive on horseback to have a good time drinking. The word "BEER" still appears on the side of the building as an invitation to passerbys.

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The two-story John Vale/Noah Cox House, built in 1853 by Swedish immigrant John Vale. Noah Cox purchased the property in 1856 and operated a mercantile establishment on the first floor, while living upstairs.

Noah house

Our Lady of Refuge Church was built in 1965 after the old church was torn down. The Tower is part of the old church which was erected in 1854.

Lady of Refuge Church

Roma is right on the U.S. and Mexico border. Across a narrow part of the river is Mexico.

Border

Mexican park at the edge of the river with a neighborhood in the background.
Mexico

One of the reason we wanted to visit Roma was to see the World Birding Center.

birding center

Unfortunate the windy conditions caused the birds to stay home and not visit the many feeders located at the center.

World Birding Center

We did see several different butterflies.

butterfly

This tree is native to south Texas. The volunteer thought it is called the Texas Ebony. If anyone knows if this is called something else, please let us know. We couldn't believe the volunteer didn't know for sure the name.

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Close up look at the pods on the tree.
nut on trees

We did enjoy walking through the historic town of Roma.

We received an email from Shoeless Joe, John, about a firefight held in the Falcon Dam area and Rio Grande City, the topic of our next blog. These shooting happened one day after our visit. The Good Lord was looking over us again. If you would like to read about the gun fire, please click here.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

11 comments:

  1. Isn't it great that there are many different places to explore? We love going where we haven't been. You just never know what you might find and enjoy!

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  2. Thanks for the heads up on Roma. Find have to check it out before we leave these here parts.

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  3. Hey we have gun fire and killings about every night in Kansas City I think thay have had 15 killed in Janurary alone.

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  4. Thanks for another great tour of a small town on the Rio Grande.

    I take it there's no Berlin Wall type fence on the border between Texas and Mexico?

    Looks like you got 'outta Dodge' just in time the other day.

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  5. What a great tour. Those are the kinds of places I really love to explore. I'm so glad you were gone before the gunshots rang out.

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  6. Great pictures and tour. You always have good history lessons!! Nice picture of the butterfly too.

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  7. Looks like a very interesting town to visit. Hard to believe that the border is so close yet the way of life is so different.

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  8. I loved seeing the town of Roma. As interesting as I find these kinds of places to be, I yearn to see what it was like in its heyday. Very thought provoking to be so close to Mexico and yet have a life so different. There but by the grace of God so I.

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  9. You've had a couple of interesting sites to visit ... glad to hear you were out of range when the shots rang out.

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  10. Sounds like a very interesting tour. Love your header photo.

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