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History of the Tremont
House
The present Tremont
House is the third Galveston hotel to bear the name. The island's first
Tremont House was built by the firm of McKinney and Williams in 1839 on
the southwest corner of Postoffice and Tremont Streets. An impressive
two-story structure, the hotel had long galleries on both floors extending
the length of the east and north facades. A grand ball in honor of the
anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto was held April 19, 1839, to open
the hotel. Tickets for the affair cost $50 in Texas currency or $25 in
gold, reflecting the unstable status of the new republic.
On April 19, 1861, General Sam Houston,
standing on the hotel's north gallery, made his last public address. He
warned a raging, hostile crowd of the horrors of civil war and predicted
that "fire and rivers of blood" would result from the South's efforts to
secede from the Union.
A year
later Texas Governor Francis R. Lubbock spoke from the East gallery. In
his address he advocated laying waste to Galveston, except for
fortifications, so that when the "vandal hordes" arrived they would find
neither potable water nor shelter...a speech that made Galveston property
owners very unhappy. On June 21, 1865, when the old hotel was occupied by
Confederate soldiers, a fire destroyed the building.
In 1871, The Galveston Hotel Company, made up of a number of Galveston
citizens, began plans for a second Tremont House. The group sought to
build a hotel that would preserve the hospitality for which the city was
famous and rival in grandeur any building in the South. A half block
bounded by Tremont, Church and 24th Street was purchased, and Nicholas J.
Clayton came to Galveston to supervise construction of the Tremont House
and the Presbyterian Church for the Memphis firm of Jones and Baldwin. The
second Tremont House opened in February 1872. Construction was halted at
the second story when the stock company ran out of funds. The railroad
building company of Burnett & Kilpatrick took over the work and continued
the building with some changes. The original plans called for four
stories. Another story was added and the mansard tower. Architect Fred S.
Stewart was brought in to work with Nicholas J. Clayton. |
The first-floor elevation of the
massive five story structure was of cast ironing the Corinthian style. The
upper floors were brick stuccoed to resemble stonework. A mansard-roofed
tower crowned the main entrance on Tremont Street. "The best place for a
preliminary look at the Texas metropolis is the observatory on the Tremont
House, which overtops the church spires and is the highest point in the
city...you see the broad expanse of clean white houses and wide sandy
beaches," reported the Galveston Daily News of April 25, 1879.
The new Tremont House was host to many celebrity guests, United States
Presidents Rutherford Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin
Harrison, James Garfield, and Chester Arthur all stayed at the hotel.
Other luminaries included Buffalo Bill Cody, Anna Pavlova, and Stephen
Crane.
At a banquet honoring former President Ulysses S. Grant, in 1880, Union
General Phil Sheridan, mellowed by good liquor and southern hospitality,
arose and apologized for his famous remark that if he owned Hell and
Texas, he would rent out Texas and live in Hell.
During the 1900 storm, hundreds of people took refuge in the Tremont
House. Clara Barton, organizer of the American Red Cross, stayed there
when she came to Galveston after the storm to help in the disaster. On
November 1, 1928, the hotel was closed, its days of glory over, and a
demolition started on December 11, 1928. The present Tremont House, a
worthy successor to these legendary hotels, opened with a gala Mardi Gras
celebration on February 16, 1985. |
