At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a renowned master bricklayer, Janchi Christiaans, who built houses which featured undulating gables, a rarity in Aruba. In Curaçao they are more common. The style originated from Holland to the colonies, such as the Netherlands Antilles used to be.

Best known is Washington House, a country house built in 1914 at Washington #23; in Wilhelminastraat, there are two more. And then there was Noord #45, across from the Sta Anna Church intersection.

Owner was August Trimon who commissioned Janchi Christiaans to build a similar house as Washington House. It had three front doors, which indicated that this building was meant to be a shop. Private houses had a single front door. 

This country house became known as Rio Grande Store, a rum shop. When it closed down, political party AVP used the building in 2013 to establish its local campaign headquarters. The building was painted over all in green, the AVP party’s color. After the campaign and the elections the building was once again left empty.

On an early Saturday morning in October 2014, passers-by were shocked to notice that the Rio Grande Store was being demolished. People were outraged that a monumental building was torn down by its owner. He had announced that the building would be spared while construction plans for the terrain were being made. But the building was destroyed nevertheless and could not be rebuilt.