[Historic Marker Application: Heidenheimer-Hunter Building] Page: 3 of 44

                                
THE 1878 SAMSON HEIDENHEIMER BUILDING
22ND AND MECHANIC STREETS
Galveston, Texas
by
Betty Hartman
2809 Avenue o
Galveston, Texas
On June 9, 1877, a fire started in the New York Restaurant near 22nd and
Market Streets, spread rapidly north, and before it could be brought under
control, laid waste to business houses in a greater part of a three block area
from Market to Strand, from 21st to 22nd Streets, excepting only the
Heidenheimer Bros. Building at Centre (21st) and Mechanic Streets. The
Grand Southern Hotel, also owned by Samson Heidenheimer, on the corner of
22nd and Mechanic Streets was one of the buildings in the path of the fire.I
The location, Lot 1 in Block 561, was one of the most important corner lots in
the business section of the city at that time, and had been occupied by
different enterprises from 1839. As soon as the ashes from the fire had
cooled, Samson Heidenheimer was having the hotel replaced by a three story
structure for commercial use. The walls of the hotel, such as were left
standing after fire, were torn down and the new building raised on the
foundation of the hotel.2 The present building was designed by Galveston
architect John Moser, with building beginning in February 1878, and finished
in July 1878. It is a three story brick building with cement fronts and with
late medieval details.3
The first sale of Lot 1 in Block 561 was from A. C. Allen, Galveston City
Company, to John Cummins in 1839. Baldinger erected a two story frame
house and bakery on the lot and conducted his business there until 1850.4
Andrew Baldinger was born in 1813, a native of Switzerland. He came to the
United States when he was seventeen years old, landing in Baltimore in 1831.
There he worked for a prominent baker and learned the bakery business.
Hearing of the Texas revolution he left Baltimore for Texas and arrived in
I Galveston Daily News, June 8 & 9,1877.
2 Ibid., February 19,1878, "Mssrs Heidenheimer Bros. to erect a 3 story brick
building on the site of the Southern Hotel."
3 Ibid., September 15,1878.
4 Charles W. Hayes, Galveston: History of the Island and the City, Vol. II, p.
890.

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