Formerly: Leon & H. Blum Building Built: 1879 Designed by: Eugene T. Heiner Renovated: 1882 - Expanded Renovated: 1985 - Restored and expanded Type: Hotel Location: Ship's Mechanic Row, Galveston, United States
T his building's location is an indication of just how vibrant and important the city of Galveston was before the Great Storm. The Tremont House is an impressive luxury hotel in an area known as The Strand. It is one of the great hotels of the world, but is located in an area that never recovered. It is surrounded by abandoned warehouses, boarded up brownstones, and empty lots. Still it, and the stores and cafes that manage to eke out a living on this street are beacons of a forgotten time when Galveston was the most important city on the Gulf Coast and the memories of pirates were still fresh. The hotel is done in Victorian style with bird cage elevators and a four-story atrium filled with ironwork and palm trees. Both inside and outside the ironwork is impressive and extensive. At the time it was completed, it was the longest mercantile building in Galveston. Though the Blum brothers operated their business well, they and the rest of the city could not withstand the changes that left Galveston behind. The mighty seafaring city was passed over during industrialization because it had only limited access to the nation's rail network. If you look at old photos of the Tremont, you'll notice that it's quite a bit shorter than it looks today. That's because for the building's first 100 years, it was only three stories tall. It was designed to be four, but the top floor was not built. Until 1985 when the new owners built the mansard-roofed attic. They needed the extra floor to make the hotel financially sound, but had to get permission from the National Park Service to alter this historic property. Though some authors claim that Buffalo Bill, Sam Houston, Ulysses S. Grant, and other historic figures have slept at the Tremont House, this is not entirely correct. They stayed at the original Tremont House which was in another part of The Strand. That building burned down in 1865. This building was a dry goods store at the time, and wasn't converted into a hotel until the 1980's.
It is said that the third and fourth floors are haunted by a survivor of the Great Storm. Some say they can hear a ticking noise, as if from an old pocket watch.
Jen Beck
Thursday, October 7th, 2004 @ 2:07pm
Rating: One star. When the hotel was built it spurred on a revitalization of downtown and the Strand district and Postoffice districts are now top tourist destinations in the states and nationally recognized, most recently in the New York Times. Lofts, restaurants and shops in the district are now booming and the area hosts events year round. Most notably Dickens on the Strand, Mardi Gras and the Lone Star Rally, all of whom have attendances of over 200,000.
Add your corrections, comments, reviews, or thoughts about this
building. Simply fill out the form below.
Your name:
E-mail address:
Your nation:
Rate this structure:
15
Your comments:
Messages without valid e-mail addresses, or containing profanity
will be automatically discarded. You're wasting your time, not ours.
Jen Beck
One star.