Galveston’s Historical Society, which began in 1871, was revived in 1954 with the incorporation of the Galveston Historical Foundation. The Galveston Historical Foundation celebrated its 135th anniversary in 2006 and continues its ongoing effort to preserve Galveston’s history, historic homes and landmarks.
Galveston boasts four districts on the National Register of Historic Places: The Strand National Historic Landmark District, East End National Historic Landmark District, Silk Stocking District and Central Business District. It is home to three National Historic Landmarks: Tall Ship Elissa, East End and The Strand. There are approximately 1,500 historic buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.
One of the most popular of these landmark districts is The Strand National Historic Landmark District, formerly known as the “Wall Street of the Southwest” and now home to a host of shops, antique stores, restaurants and art galleries. The Strand is one of the largest and best-preserved concentrations of Victorian, iron-front commercial architecture in the country. Galveston Island has a number museums and historic homes open to the public for tours.
Additional private historic homes are open to the public during the annual Galveston Historical Foundation’s Historic Homes Tour during the first two weekends in May.
Galveston was named for Bernardo de Gálvez, a Spanish colonial governor and general. Galvez sent Jose de Evia to chart the Gulf of Mexico from the Texas coast to New Orleans, and on July 23, 1786, de Evia charted an area near the mouth of a river and named it Galveston Bay. Later, the island and city took the same name. Bernardo de Gálvez died the same year, never setting foot on his namesake island.
In 1528, when the first Europeans landed, Galveston Island was home to Akokisa and Karankawa Indians who camped, fished and hunted the swampy land and buried their dead here. The Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked on the Island and lived among the Karankawa for several years as a medicine man and slave. In the late 1600’s, French explorer Robert Cavelier La Salle claimed this area for King Louis and named it St. Louis.
The pirate Jean Lafitte arrived on the Island in 1817, making it his base of operations and naming it Campeche. The little village contained huts for the pirates, a large slave market, boarding houses for visiting buyers, a shipyard, saloons, pool halls, gambling houses and Lafitte’s own house, the “Maison Rouge.” At one point, Campeche was home to about 1,000 people.
General James Long attempted to recruit Lafitte to help make Texas independent from Spain and Mexico, but Lafitte remained neutral. In 1820, Mexico won independence from Spain, but Lafitte stayed on the Island. In May 1821, after Lafitte’s attack on an American ship, he was forced to abandon his operations in Galveston. Before leaving, he hosted a huge party for his pirates with wine and whiskey and burned his settlement. It is believed that he had buried treasure on the Island, but it has never been found.
In 1821, Jane Long, while waiting in vain for the return of her husband General James Long, who had been killed in Mexico, became “The Mother of Texas” giving birth to the first Anglo-Saxon native Texan, Mary Jane Long on Bolivar Peninsula.
In 1836, four ships of the Texas Navy made headquarters on the Island and protected the Texas coast from harassment by the Mexican Navy. These ships prevented supplies and men from reaching Santa Anna, ensuring a victory for Sam Houston’s army at San Jacinto, 22 miles northwest of Galveston.
In 1836, Michel B. Menard, a native of Canada, purchased a “league and labor” of land for $50,000 from the Austin Colony, and established the City of Galveston. Galveston started with an area of seven square miles. Menard needed additional money to promote the town and formed the Galveston City Company with nine other men. These men were Gail Borden, Jr. (publisher of the Telegraph and Texas Register and inventor of condensed milk); Samuel May Williams (former secretary to Stephen F. Austin and successful merchant); Thomas F. McKinney (Williams’ mercantile partner and an early cotton trader); William H. Jack (Texas patriot and distinguished statesman); A.J. Yates (loan commissioner for the Republic of Texas); John K. Allen (a founder of Houston); Mosley Baker (lawyer and patriot); James Love (eminent jurist and successful planter) and David White (an investor from Mobile, Alabama).
The Congress of the Republic of Texas made Galveston a port of entry in 1837 and appointed Gail Borden as Collector of Customs; the first customs house had been opened in Galveston in 1825. Several prefabricated houses arrived from Maine in 1837, one belonging to Augustus Allen, which was sold to Michel Menard in 1839. Two of these prefabricated houses owned by Galveston’s founding fathers still stand – the Michel B. Menard Home (1838) and the Samuel May Williams Home (1839).
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