These are photos taken along the wrap-around porch surrounding a structure on the Laredo Community College Fort McIntosh campus known as P-11, built in 1880 as officers quarters.
The historic structure’s porch is today a dangerous proposition of rotten tongue-in-groove planking, rotten railings, and swollen wood on which roof supports rest — all which invite matters of liability.
While the college continues to spend on new construction just across the street and has in the recent past preserved many of its old wooden structures — some in grand style — the two-story P-11 continues in a spiral of decay, that which fosters demolition by neglect. Note the back porch screen door that invites varmits, rats, and feral cats, and note the utility configuration. The roof of P-11 reportedly leaks. The grounds of the former military fort are a state Archeological Landmark and a National Register Historic District.
There are so many needs in our community including historical preservation. Unfortunately, the community does not support those that try to preserve these structures.