The 169-year-old Samuel May Williams House, the second oldest residential dwelling in Galveston, will find itself in a new role this spring: a showhouse for area designers who have volunteered to make over the interior of the house in an up-to-date but historically sensitive style.

The Williams House will serve as the Spring Designer Showhouse community service project of the Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). The results will be unveiled on Friday, May 2 at First Impression: A Preview Evening Tour, which opens Galveston Historical Foundation's 34th Annual Historic Homes Tour. The house will be open to the public on weekends through May 25, including the two weekends of the Homes Tour.

"This program is part of a creative new approach to historic preservation at a time when house-museums nationwide are finding it hard to sustain themselves on visitor admissions alone," said Dwayne Jones, executive director of Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF), which saved the house in 1954 and operated it as a house museum until last year.

"We've recruited an amazingly talented group of people around this project," said Tom Schwenk, GHF vice-president and member of ASID, who first proposed the idea to each organization. "Each room will express an individual design vision, but recurring colors and fabrics--and a respect for the long and illustrious history of the house--will see that it ends up a cohesive whole."

"It's been exciting to see," Schwenk said, "and I really think we're doing right by this historic property. We're bringing it to a level of maintenance and finish that, frankly, we could never afford to do while it served as a house museum. The house is coming to life again. It's beginning to feel like a home-like what it was built to be."

The 12 participating design teams, each responsible for a single room or area of the house, are providing their services free of charge and have arranged for donations of the materials, furniture and fixtures they required.

"The designers jumped at the chance to volunteer for this project," said Schwenk. "ASID has done a spring and fall designer showhouse for years, but for the last 21 years they have been brand-new custom-built homes. The possibilities and challenges of working with a historic-and very old-house turned out to be a real draw."

GHF has invested in structural repairs to the house, and will collect the admission charged during the month that the new designs are on display. At the end of that time, the furniture used in the showhouse will be sold or returned, but the kitchen and bath fixtures will remain.

"The result will be that for the first time in well over half a century, the Williams House will be a fully functional and livable residence," said Jones. "That will open up far more options for its future sustainability."

The house, architecturally a combination of Gulf Coast and New England traditions, was built in 1839 for City of Galveston co-founder and founder of the Texas Navy, Samuel May Williams, his wife Clara, and their large family. Threatened with demolition in 1954, the house served as the catalyst for GHF's incorporation as a historic preservation organization, and was the foundation's first purchase and restoration project.

"I can hardly overemphasize the importance of this house," said Jones, "not only to Galveston and Texas history, but to the history and affections of our organization. The house inspired a generation of active, public-spirited Galvestonians to found what has grown into the largest local historic preservation group in the nation-an organization that has had a profound effect on our community."

Citing a steady decline in visitation and revenues, however, the board of directors of GHF voted in September of 2007 to close the house at 3601 Avenue P as a tourist attraction and to seek an alternative means of insuring its continued survival and integrity.

"Discussions continue as to the future of the house," said Jones. "We might lease it to a 'resident curator,' who would be responsible for the maintenance and historic integrity of the house. Or it may find use as a GHF residence, available to visiting scholars or even staff. Whatever course we take, the Williams House's turn as an ASID Designers Showhouse puts us in a much better position to make a good choice."

The Williams House will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays during the Homes Tour, May 3, 4, 10 and 11, and from noon to 4 p.m. the following two weekends. Admission is $15, or may be packaged with an advance Historic Homes Tour ticket for $10 over the advance Homes Tour price of $20. After May 3, the package will be $35. Groups of 20 or more may tour the house by special arrangement during weekdays in May.

GHF's Historic Homes Tour will take place on May 3 and 4, and May 10 and 11. Ticket prices are $20 in advance and $25 beginning May 3. GHF members and groups of 20 or more are offered the discount prices of $15 for the Homes Tour and $25 for the combined Homes Tour and Designer Showhouse. (Member tickets available at GHF headquarters only.)

The first public viewing of the Showhouse will be on Friday evening, May 2, during the kickoff event of the Historic Homes Tour, "First Impression: An Evening Preview." Five properties will be open from 5:30 to 9 p.m., including the Victorian masterpiece, the Bishop' Palace, where wine and light hors d'oeuvres will be served, and the Williams House. Tickets are $60, and include a ticket to the Homes Tour.

Event Details...

May Weekends	Samuel May Williams House Tours
Tours	May 2: 5:30pm - 9pm May 3-4: 10am - 6pm May 10-11: 10am - 6pm May 17-18: Noon - 4pm May 24-25: Noon - 4pm
Location	3601 Avenue P
Admission	Admission is $15, or may be packaged with an advance Historic Homes Tour ticket for $10 over the advance Homes Tour price of $20. After May 3, the package will be $35.

About The Samuel May Williams House...

This rare combination of Creole-plantation and New England architectural styles was built in 1838 for Samuel May Williams, secretary to Stephen F. Austin and founder of the Texas Navy.

Williams played an important role in early Texas history. The son of a ship captain, he was born on October 4, 1795, in Providence, Rhode Island. He learned the trades of bookkeeping and international commerce while employed by his uncle in Baltimore. After working in Buenos Aires and New Orleans, Williams arrived in Mexican Texas in 1822, settling in San Felipe de Austin. In 1838, Williams, along with Michel B. Menard and other early Texas businessmen, helped found the Galveston City Company. A year later the city of Galveston was incorporated. Other business ventures included a partnership with Thomas F. McKinney, resulting in a successful commission house and Texas' first bank.

Williams died on September 13, 1858, at the age of 63, without a will. The four surviving Williams children divided the property and sold the house to Philip Tucker. The Tucker family lived in the house until 1953, when it was sold to the Galveston Historical Foundation.