Galveston Architecture Guidebook

The Galveston Architecture Guidebook will be invaluable to all those who visit Galveston. Historic preservationists, scholars of nineteenth-century material culture, architects, and historians will be fascinated by the broad range of buildings and urban conditions it documents. Finally, anyone interested in Galveston or the Gulf Coast will find in this book a wealth of information.

"This ambitious study of Staub's work by architectural historian Stephen Fox goes beyond a description of Staub's houses. Fox analyzes the roles of space, structure, and decoration in creating, defining, and maintaining social class structures and expectations and shows how Staub was able to incorporate these elements and understandings into the elegant buildings he designed for his clients. In the process, he contributes greatly to a fuller understanding of Houston's emergence as a premier American city."--BOOK JACKET.

Alleys and back buildings have been largely overlooked in studies of the American urban environment. And yet, rental alley houses, servant and slave quarters, carriage houses, stables, and other secondary structures have lined the alleys and filled the backyards of Galveston since its early days as a growing port city on the upper Texas Gulf Coast. Like their counterparts in other cities, these buildings and their inhabitants have had a profound visual, physical, and social impact on the history and development of Galveston. Interweaving written documents, oral interviews, and pictorial images, Beasley presents a vivid picture of Galveston’s alleys and alley life from the founding of the city into the twentieth century. The book blends a unique combination of research, photography, and the voices of those who have lived and live along the alleys. Beasley has uncovered and analyzed a wealth of new information not only about the back buildings of Galveston but also about their occupants and the complex cultural forces at work in their lives.

A guide through the history of the Playground of the Southwest. Established in 1839, Galveston was the largest city in Texas for much of the state's early history. The island city has hosted the likes of Cabeza de Vaca, Jean Lafitte, Sam Houston, Jack Johnson, King Vidor, and Sam Maceo. A strategic target during the Civil War and military stronghold during both World Wars, Galveston endured through countless calamities, including the most damaging hurricane to hit the United States. From historic mansions to long-hidden outposts of the vice district, author Tristan Smith surveys the best places to catch a glimpse of the Oleander City's past, whether that comes in the form of museum treasure or Seawall panorama.

The Strand, known as the Wall Street of the Southwest, contains a significant collection of 19th-century buildings. Long the center of Galveston's business community, its architecture is a reminder of this historic port city. The National Historic Landmark District includes buildings classified as Greek Revival, Italianate, and Victorian style--sometimes with traces of vernacular building traditions that date to the 1850s. Historic images found within this book illustrate the development of the Strand and surrounding streets, including Mechanic, Market, and Postoffice. Galveston's Historic Downtown and Strand District demonstrates the power of place, despite an ever-changing economy and natural disasters.

On September 8, 1900, a devastating hurricane destroyed most of the island city of Galveston, along with the lives of more than 6,000 men, women, and children. Today that hurricane remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Despite this tragedy, many Galvestonians were determined to rebuild their city. An ambitious plan was developed to construct a wall against the sea, link the island to the mainland with a reliable concrete bridge, and raise the level of the city. While the grade was raised beneath them, houses were perched on stilts and residents made their way through town on elevated boardwalks. Galveston became a "city on stilts." While Galvestonians worked to rebuild the infrastructure of their city, they also continued conducting business and participating in recreational activities. Zeva B. Edworthy's photographs document the rebuilding of the port city and life around Galveston in the early 1900s.

"The idea for this book came about when architectural historian Kathryn O'Rourke and architect / photographer Ben Koush collaborated on a piece on postmodern architecture for Texas Architect. The two enjoyed working together--with O'Rourke writing and Koush providing visuals--and, together with UTP, developed the framework for a similarly rich, book-length treatment of modern architecture in Texas. Conceived to be accessible to a general readership, this project explores in photographs and words approximately fifty years of Texas modern architecture, from the 1930s to the 1980s. As O'Rourke writes, "In this period, modern architecture and Texas grew and changed at an astonishing pace. The state became a significant force in national and international affairs, chiefly as a consequence of the oil industry and the presence of politically powerful Texans in Washington, D.C. Major buildings, many designed by regionally and nationally-prominent architects, followed the money in the state as the influence and image of Texas grew. Relentless ambition, a forward-looking attitude, and a strong sense of place combined to make Texans particularly receptive to modern architecture's implication of newness, its future-oriented image, and its capacity to reinterpret historical forms in novel ways." While many books on Texas architecture focus on one building type (residential architecture, courthouses, and so on), this project adopts a broader lens. A dozen chapters presented under four thematic headings explore buildings through a variety of frameworks--there are the inescapable forces of heat and money, essential functions like caregiving and government, and groupings for leisure and multi-building sites such as museums and campuses. In each of these sections, the authors present a "constellation" of buildings, with one central example and several supporting ones. So, for instance, the "God" chapter presents O'Neil Ford's Little Chapel in the Woods in Denton as its main building, alongside the Antioch Baptist Church in San Antonio and the Congregation Rodef Shalom in Waco. This sort of geographical diversity, with big cities sitting alongside smaller and lesser studied places, runs through the volume as a whole"--

Since 1821, when Jean Lafitte sailed away from a burning Campeche, the history of Galveston has often been wreathed in smoke. Over the next century, one inferno breached the walls of Moro Castle, while another reduced forty-two blocks of the residential district to ash. Recognizing the importance of protecting the city, concerted efforts were made to establish the first paid fire department, create a city waterworks and regulate construction standards. Yet even with all the forethought and planning, rogue fires continued to consume architectural gems like Nicholas Clayton's Electric Pavilion. Author James F. Anderson explores the lessons that Galveston has learned from its fiery past in order to safeguard its future.