How Del Rio's Main Street reveals the city's early growth

Perry Street, named for early merchant John Perry, began in the 800-1200 blocks at the southern end of today’s downtown and later swung west to meet Broadway, the railroad-platted street north of town.

How Del Rio’s center took shape

Del Rio grew from a small commercial core into the county seat of Val Verde County, with one street pattern built around merchants and another shaped by the railroad. Del Rio was founded in 1872, Val Verde County was organized in 1881, and Del Rio became county seat in 1885.

The city sits on U.S. 90 in southwestern Texas, and its development turned on both railroad access and San Felipe Springs. Downtown did not form as a clean modern grid. Its oldest commercial spine had to adapt to a second axis of growth, the railroad-platted Broadway corridor.

Main Street still compresses that early history into a few walkable blocks. The southern end of downtown is older in the literal alignment of the street itself, where the first Perry Street blocks remain the clearest trace of the town’s earliest business district.

Why the street pattern still matters now

That old alignment still shapes everyday decisions downtown. A street that begins as a short merchant strip and then bends to connect with another platted center street does not behave like a newer commercial district built around large parcels and wide parking lots. It channels traffic differently, creates uneven block lengths, and makes the question of walkability feel local and block by block rather than abstract.

For the City of Del Rio, Val Verde County, and downtown businesses, that means Main Street continues to influence where people park, where they cross, and which buildings can be reused without altering the historic street rhythm. The street layout also helps explain why public buildings and civic uses have long found a place downtown, where the old commercial core could absorb more than retail alone.

Downtown’s form was never accidental. The merchant core, the railroad extension, and the westward jog toward Broadway left a framework that still guides how the district functions for cars, pedestrians, and storefronts.

The Old Perry Building as the clearest landmark

The Old Perry Building gives that story a physical anchor at 1308 S. Main St. A historical marker states that John Perry erected it in 1871, before Del Rio was founded, as a general store. The marker states that it was once the largest store between San Antonio and El Paso.

The marker inscription states that the building also served as a courthouse, church, Masonic lodge, and post office.

The Texas Historical Commission designated the Old Perry Building a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1966.

What to notice on a walk down Main Street

A short walk through downtown makes the street pattern easy to read. The southernmost blocks tell the story of Perry Street’s original footprint, while the northward stretch shows where the town expanded and the railroad-platted Broadway corridor began to matter.

Look for:

• the 800-1200 blocks, where Perry Street originally ran at the southern end of modern Main Street
• the westward shift where Main Street had to connect to Broadway
• 1308 S. Main St., the Old Perry Building site
• the transition from smaller early blocks to the fuller downtown fabric that grew after Del Rio became the county seat

Why preservation records still matter

Materials from the Val Verde County Historical Commission in The Portal to Texas History include images from the 1976 Historical Resources Survey of Del Rio.

The record gives planners, property owners, and downtown visitors a way to compare what survived, what changed, and what the street still permits. The same geography that once linked Perry Street to Broadway now shapes how the city thinks about infill, reuse, building placement, and the balance between vehicles and people on Main Street.