Heritage, Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 1989 Page: 21
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front facade facing the Strand, which is
composed of single, square granite columns
rising the full height of the first floor and
supporting great lintels of the same material
to provide an almost continuous opening
along the street. Each of the bays is
divided internally by a row of cast iron
columns on the first and second floors, in
turn supporting heavy timber beams and
timber floors. The third floor is supported
on wooden columns.
While the Civil War slowed the growth
of the city, the recovery was rapid and the
building of the rail line to Houston in 1870
provided further impetus. The leaders of
Galveston-Moody, Sealy, Kempner,
Hutchings and many others-built homes,
warehouses, offices and public buildings to
reflect their new-found wealth and that of
their island city and, in 1872, the city saw
the arrival of a man who was to be its
undisputed leader in design for the next
forty years.
Nicholas Clayton was born in Ireland
and was thirty-two years old when he was
sent by his employers, Jones and Baldwin,
architects of Memphis, Tennessee, to
supervise the construction of the First
Presbyterian Church. Clayton, who had
worked as a stonecutter prior to entering
the field of architecture, had a natural grasp
of materials and a deep knowledge of the
many styles that were represented in High
Victorian design. His work in Galveston
was quite prolific. Howard Barnstone,
whose 1966 book The Galveston That Was
was so instrumental in drawing attention
to the neglected heritage of the city's architecture,
had no hesitation in referring to
the last part of the 19th century as The
Clayton Era. His work in the Strand area in
the 1880s transformed the city's business
environment. The Hutchings Sealy Building
is an essay in the daring admixture of
sandstone, granite and terra cotta. It provided
for banking halls and several levels of
office accommodation reached through a
wide central hall lit from above by a great
skylight. Light was even allowed to filter
past a cast iron stair through a glass floored
well. The Trueheart Adriance Building of
1882 is smaller in scale, but richly ornamented
with polychrome brick and supported
at the front on elaborate cast iron
columns, whose design shows a total mastery
of the engineering principles as well as
the manufacturing process necessary to
create them. By the middle of the 1890s the
Strand had been nicknamed "The Wall
Street of the Southwest" and was the focusfor world-wide trade and the setting of one
of the nation's liveliest cultures.
The life of Galveston was enhanced by
educational establishments, notable
among which was the first medical school
in the state, which occupied the Ashbel
Smith Building in 1890, yet another building
by Nicholas Clayton, and affectionately
known today as "Old Red" for its red
brick, sandstone and red tiled roof.
Not all was work and education for the
citizens of Galveston, however, and here
again we can still see some of the fine
structures they built. The Grand Opera
House, with its Richardsonian entrance
arch has recently undergone a splendid
restoration. The entry and lobbies have
been reworked to meet the needs of the
present-day theatre-goer, but the richness
of the detailing and the materials has been
faithfully re-used or re-created to maintain
the full flavor of a night at the opera in the
Gay Nineties.
By the end of the 19th century the
beach itself had become a focus for activity
both for the people of the island and even
more for the growing population of Houston.
The hazards of wind and storms notwithstanding,
several entrepreneurs created
pavilions on the Gulf shore. Nicholas
Clayton designed and built the Beach
Hotel three stories high, with two hundred
rooms and huge verandas facing the Gulf
breezes. The Beach quickly became a summertime
sensation until it burned down in
1898. Clayton's genius with wood is stillOPPOSITE: The Trueheart-Adriance Building,
1882. Nicholas Clayton at his High Victorian best
with Corinthian capitals, Greek pediment, Romanesque
upper floor windows, cast-iron columns and
polychrome brick.
TOP: W.L. Moody Building, 1884. Nicholas
Clayton. The top fourth story originally featured
large pediments and clocks which were destroyed
by the Great Storm of 1900. Photo courtesy of the
Rosenberg Library.visible in one place of public gathering, the
Garten Verein on N Street between 27th
and 28th Streets. This octagonal hall has a
high central lantern to exhaust air from the
dance hall below and exceptionally large
sliding sash windows to ensure a good flow
of air across the floor. The building is now
restored and continues to provide a venue
for neighborhood and public events.
With such opulence visible in public
architecture it is not surprising that the
great homes of Galveston also reflected the
wealth and power of their owners. The Silk
Stocking Historic District along the edge
of 25th Street as it goes north toward the
Strand represents an upper middle class
neighborhood, and the East End District,
stretching all the way from Broadway to
Market and encompassing a 40-block area
from 11 th to 19th contains as rich a collection
of Gulf Coast housing types as can be
found anywhere. They range from small
raised cottages, with classic shotgun plans,
to elegant mansions in a wide variety of
materials. Their charm is enhanced by the
fact that most of them remain residences to
this day. Many are protected by tall,
HERITAGE * SPRING 1989 21
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 1989, periodical, Spring 1989; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45432/m1/21/?rotate=90: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.