Old Hollis Building
San Augustine, San Augustine County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1889 by I. H. Hollis. Succeeded the imposing home ("Yellow House") of John P. Border, merchant. Also on site was office of K. L. Anderson, last vice president of Republic. This structure escaped the great fire, 1890. Has housed many businesses, including post office, 1911. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
I. H. Hollis put up this building in 1889 on a site with deep San Augustine roots, where the imposing "Yellow House" of merchant John P. Border had once stood and where K. L. Anderson, the last vice president of the Republic of Texas, had kept an office. The structure notably survived the great fire that swept the town in 1890. Over the years it sheltered a long succession of businesses, including the post office in 1911.
Why it matters
The building layers together the commercial life of a historic East Texas town and its ties to the vanished Republic of Texas, all on a single downtown lot.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
San Augustine is one of the oldest towns in Texas founded by Anglo-American settlers. It grew up in the deep East Texas woods along the old Camino Real, the road linking Spanish Texas with Louisiana, and that road brought settlers, merchants and politicians straight through town. By the time of the Republic of Texas, from 1836 to 1845, San Augustine was an important community whose leading citizens helped shape the new nation.
After annexation and the Civil War, San Augustine settled into life as a county seat and market town. Merchants sold dry goods, hardware and supplies to the farmers around it, and downtown buildings rose and fell with the local economy.
That economy was vulnerable to fire. In the late 1800s, small-town commercial districts were packed with wooden buildings, heated by stoves and lit by lamps, and with little organized firefighting. A single blaze could level a whole block, which is exactly what happened in San Augustine in 1890.
People & events
This lot has held three layers of history. First came the "Yellow House," the imposing home of John P. Border, a merchant whose house stood out in the young town. Also on this site was the office of K. L. Anderson, the last vice president of the Republic of Texas. Kenneth Lewis Anderson served alongside the Republic's final president in the months before Texas joined the United States, so this spot was tied to the last days of an independent Texas.
In 1889 I. H. Hollis put up the building that stands here today. It was a businessman's investment in a town that was still growing, and it went up just in time for a disaster.
The next year, the great fire of 1890 swept through San Augustine. This building came through it, which is why it is still here and so many of its neighbors are not. In the years that followed it housed a long series of businesses, including the town's post office in 1911, when the building would have been a daily stop for much of the community.
Its place in the American story
The Old Hollis Building is a modest storefront with a big connection: the Republic of Texas, the only state that was an independent, internationally recognized nation before joining the Union. K. L. Anderson's office on this lot is a reminder that the Republic was run out of ordinary small-town offices, and that East Texas towns like San Augustine supplied many of its leaders.
The building also tells a story repeated across nineteenth-century America. Main streets burned again and again, and the buildings that survived became the anchors of their towns. Survivors like this one now carry much of the record of what downtowns looked like before the fires.
Its later life as a post office links it to another national thread. In small towns, the post office was the main connection to the wider world, the place where letters, newspapers and catalogs arrived. A building that served that role became part of how a rural community stayed in touch with the rest of the country.
If you visit
Look for the building in San Augustine's historic downtown. Take in its late-1880s commercial look and remember that its neighbors in 1890 were far less lucky. Standing here, you are on a single lot that has held a merchant's showplace home, an office of the Republic of Texas, and a downtown business that outlived the fire.
San Augustine is a rewarding town to explore on foot, with plenty of historic markers and older buildings that reflect its long role along the Camino Real. Walking the downtown streets helps you picture the merchants, travelers and statesmen who passed through.
If you are tracing the Camino Real across East Texas, San Augustine is a natural stop between Nacogdoches and the Louisiana border. Make time to wander, because the town's history is layered on lots like this one.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · I. H. Hollis
- · K. L. Anderson
- · John P. Border
Themes & tags
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