Wiebe's Wanderings: Galveston

Tuesday, Nov 6 we headed back to Galveston for our last day in this area. We wanted to take a tour of Bishops Palace which was closed on Saturday and also wanted to take in the Strand District and take a tour of the Elissa, a tall ship in the harbour.

We ran our a/c all night and woke up to heavy fog. We delayed our departure until the fog lifted and when we walked outside it was like getting hit with a hot wet dish rag. For the 3rd day in a row the temp was in the 90's with a humidity level of 100%. So tired of this humidity. The weather is supposed to break this weekend so cooler and dryer weather is on its way. Yea!

House was built from 1887 to 1892 for Colonel Walter Gresham,
his wife Josephine and their 9 children.

In 1923 house was sold to the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
Was lived in by Bishop Byrne, thus the name, Bishop's Palace

Its a grand house and has been very well restored.
It has been owned by the Galveston Historical Foundation since 2013

These 3 guys were busy painting the wood trim and metal work.

Some beautiful flowering shrubs in the flower beds.

One of the 11 fireplaces in the house.
Originally 10 were coal and one was gas.
Now all are gas and are used in the winter.

Another fireplace
The wood trim is mostly Mahogany, Black Walnut and Curly Oak

and yet another.
Every window has louvered shutters which are all operational.

Some very intricate carving.

Ceiling of the dining room

Built in buffet with silver service

Ice box

Back stairway with beautiful stained glass window

Wood fired cooking stove.

Fireplace in Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom. No central heat in those days.
Smaller beds let to more snuggling.
Which led to 9 children.

House complete with its own chapel.
Of all the stained glass in the house,
and there was lots of stained glass windows,
only one wasn't original.

Main stairway
A truly beautiful old house.

After Bishops Palace we took a short drive to the leeward side of the island
The Strand district has many old buildings with shops and restaurants.
One block away are the docks where the real big ships dock.
Most of them are related to the oil business although
a few days earlier we saw a Carnival Cruise ship.

Here are a couple of drilling rigs in port for repairs.
When driving over the causeway to Galveston Island you can see
huge refinery complexes going on for miles.
I'm sure some of the oil being used is piped in from Canada.

An old tall ship, the Elissa, is in port and available to tour

This ship was rebuilt to original specs but is
fully functional and able to sail the seas.

Sitting room in the Captan's cabin

I kind of like this shot.
Every few hundred pics I get the angles right

Note the brick column on the right with the markers.
Now look at the picture below.

The high water marks from various hurricanes.
Nothing up yet for Harvey from 2017.
The one in 1900 basically decimated the island. Tens of Thousands killed.
Bishops Palace was one of the few houses left standing.
Afterwards they brought in dredges to take sand from the ocean bottom and build up the island.