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Simon Celaya immigrated to Brownsville from Spain in 1850. At the time, Brownsville, built as the American alternative to Matamoros, was ruled by a few key Anglo families - Charles Stillman, Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy. Stillman had usurped a Spanish land grant to the Cortinas family and sold it as lots in Brownsville; King and Kenedy maintained a virtual monopoly on Rio Grande commerce with their steamships; Celaya was but a merchant.
As early as 1866, Kenedy and King had received a charter for a railroad to link the port at Point Isabel to Brownsville. Satisfied with their monopoly of Rio Grande River traffic, the two men never built the railroad. Celaya, trying to get goods to his stores at lower prices, organized the Rio Grande Railroad in 1870 and finished it’s 22.5 mile construction between Point Isabel and Brownsville in 1872. To maintain their monopoly, both Kenedy and King tried to block the construction of the railroad in court. They weren’t successful.
Simon Celaya had at least two sons - Augustine and Jose. Augustine was a lawyer and businessman who, like his brother Jose, continued to grow his father’s assets. In 1904, Augustine designed this Victorian home for his family. In attempts at climate control, the home’s hand-made adobe brick walls are 13 inches thick and the home’s entrance is orientated towards the corner, where three polygonal bays join to form an entrance porch designed to capture the slightest Gulf breeze. Inside the home is a free standing, curved staircase, said to be one of the most striking interior architectural features of Brownsville.
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