Galveston: The Moody Mansion

There are many beautiful homes in Galveston. Some of them are still private residences. But lucky for us, some of them are not. One such house is the Moody Mansion, though to call it a house is a bit of an understatement. There 31 rooms and 28,000 square feet on four floors. Let's check it out!

The house was built in 1895 by Narcissa Willis. She was the widow of Richard Willis. She had a home on that same site, but had it demolished and built this new home in its place. Rumor was that she built the home hoping to lure her daughter and son-in-law back to Galveston. It didn’t work. Unfortunately, Narcissa died in 1899, and the house went up for sale. There were plenty of bidders at first. Then I think we all know what happened in 1900…the worst hurricane ever.  Fortunately, the house didn’t sustain any serious damage during the storm.

William L Moody, Jr was living at a house on Avenue M at the time. According to the audio tour given by “Mary”, they lived in a small wooden house that had built for them by the Colonel (William Lewis Moody, Sr.) where all four children shared one bedroom.
 
He was one of the bidders for the house. As, one by one, the other bidders retracted their bids, he was the last man standing. Narcissa Willis’s daughter, Olive, accepted his offer of $20,000 and the Moody family moved into the house at 2816 Broadway in time to celebrate Christmas in 1900.

There’s an audio tour where you can hear narration about various rooms in the house by either descendants of the Moody family or from “Mary Moody Northen”. I put her name in quotes because the narration starts off with a man saying, “Let’s pretend….”
 
Both audio tours are good.
 
The Moody family lived in this house until 1983 when hurricane Alicia caused enough damage to make the place uninhabitable. The family consisted of WL Moody, Jr., Mrs. Libbie Shearn Moody and their children, Mary, William L, III, Shearn and Libbie. The last Moody to live here was Mary. She was the family historian and, fortunately for us, she was really good at it! It was Mary that made the decision to turn the house into a museum. For $15 a person, you can see this magnificent house and maybe learn a thing or two as well.

We started out in the garage, which was obviously added on. In fact, the land that the garage and the ticket office are on was originally a row of houses. The Moody property ended where the north gate entry is, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

In the garage, there are three cars. The first is a 1931 Studebaker Dictator 8 that belonged to Mary Moody Northen. While she and her husband owned several cars over the years, this it the first one she bought for herself. She did her due diligence, researching all cars features before placing her order directly at the factory in South Bend.  For you car buffs, it had a straight 8-cylinder engine, a 3-speed manual transmission and hydraulic brakes. She drove this car into the 1950’s. It’s a cool looking vehicle. As women didn’t have a lot of rights or privileges during that time, I can see why purchasing her own car made it that much more special.
 
The other two cars are 1949 Cadillac Fleetwood “60” Special that belonged to WL Moody, Jr. and a 1940 LaSalle 4-door touring sedan that belonged to Mary’s husband, Mike.
 
From the garage, you proceed to the north gate. This is where you find out that the original property line ended here. The house didn’t have much of a yard. At some point, Mr. Moody purchased the house next door and demolished it so that the children would have a place to play. 

The porte cochere (which is pronounced, “porta co-share”) was where the visitors were dropped off. The carriages would pull in from Broadway, drop off the passengers and then continue through and around the back to leave. Then the visitors would climb these stairs and make their way around the front to ring the doorbell and wait for admittance.

I love this porch. It’s not quite a “wrap-around” but it definitely covers the length of the house. I think back then it would have been lovely to sit out on the porch and watch the people go by, but Broadway Avenue is not the same today as it was in their day.
 
Meanwhile, we go up to the front door and ring the bell and wait to be admitted. If were actual guests of Moody’s, the door would have been answered by the butler and we’d have been shown into the “Reception Room”. That’s assuming of course we were here to see Mrs. Moody.

But when you first walk into the house, you’re in a great hall that is beautiful. It’s dark wood, with a large fireplace at the far end. There is one room to the right and two rooms to the left along with a staircase that you can’t see much of. On the audio tour, this is where you get an introduction to the Moody family.

On the walls are gasoliers (the lights). Electricity was very new at this time and quite unreliable so the lights were set up to use both gas and electricity. When the family had parties in the ballroom to the right, many times the parties would spill into this hall.

We turn to the left and go into the reception room. This is where Mrs. Moody hosted her visitors. Back then, people came to visit you...at your house. Then, you returned the favor and went to visit them. The grand dames of the time would put a notice in the paper to say when they would be "at home", which meant they were receiving visitors (According to "Mary", Tuesday was usually Libbie's day). On that day, you would show up at the door, give the butler your card and he would seat you here. Mrs. Moody would join you and the maid would bring refreshments. No men and no kids allowed in this room.

The walls were covered with silk. That's right, it was material. Not wallpaper or paint. 

Right next to the reception room, separated by pocket doors was the library. This room was more family-oriented. The bookshelves stop about half way up the wall so that the children have access to the books on the shelves. They were allowed to read in here even though this is where Mr. Moody would do his work when he worked at home.

This desk is where the magic happened. Mr. Moody was president of several companies and he actively managed them all. There was the bank, the insurance company, the hotel company (they owned 18 hotels across Texas), the cotton factor business, the Mercantile company and the printing company to name a few.

The ballroom was largely unfinished when the Moody family bought the house in 1900 and stayed that way until 1911, when Mary Moody had her debut. The family used the room for storage. When planning for the debut, the family employed local contractors to finish the work. Mrs. Moody ordered most everything from magazines using the local contractors to do the installation.

Off the ballroom was a conservatory where the family grew flowers. The walls were glass as was the ceiling. The ceiling could be opened to allow the fresh air in. When having parties, the conservatory was where the orchestra would sit and play music.

These are windows in the ballroom. I love these shutters. They fold into the wall. According to the sign, they were guaranteed to open and shut for 125 years. "Do the math and leave them open", the sign says.

The dining room was the largest one in Galveston. The table could expand to seat 20 people. The sideboard and mantle over the fireplace are made of mahogany (my sister would love these!). The family was a bit unusual in that they at dinner with their children. Normally, children would eat separately from their parents but the Moody's took this opportunity to talk to their children and teach them things like manners.

Just off the dining room is the butler's pantry. The kitchen was on the ground floor. So in the butler's pantry, they had a dumb waiter to move the food from the ground floor up to the dining room. It was a little manual elevator. The cook would put the serving dish of food in the dumb waiter and the butler would pull it up. He'd take the dish out of the dumb waiter, fill the dishes and then serve them to the family in the dining room. The empty dishes he would send down the dumb waiter back to the kitchen to be washed.

This contraption was an intercom system, the 1900's version. These communication tubes connected the various rooms. The "caller" would open the tube for the room they wanted to call. They would blow into the tube which would create a whistling sound in the destination room to alert the receiver that a call was coming in. The receiver in this scenario would open the tube and they would talk. It was necessary to talk very distinctly in order to be heard clearly. Clever, no?

As you leave the butler's pantry, you enter the "back of the house". Generally speaking only servants and family are back here. These are the back stairs only used by servants and children. The hallway leads to another set of stairs that goes down to the kitchen. There's also an elevator back there that was manually manipulated. It was used by the servants to move larger items between floors but they had to use ropes to manually lift the elevator. It wasn't motorized until the renovation.

This room was also toward the back of the house because it was where the family relaxed together. I liked that it was tucked away behind the main stairs. Mr. and Mrs. Moody would sit by the fire and read while the children would work on the homework or play piano.

The old victrola for listening to records.

The piano where Mary practiced.

These are the main stairs to the second floor. They are beautiful.

The stained glass window was put there by Mrs. Willis. In all the years that the house has stood, the window has never been damaged by a hurricane. In 1968, the panels were removed to be cleaned. The day before they were supposed to be put back, there was a fire at the company that was cleaning them. six panels were destroyed. I would have been sick. The company sent the remaining panels to another company to reproduce the ones that were destroyed. Now the window is protected by hurricane glass.

The hall at the top of the stairs. It seems like another big room although I don't know what you'd do out here. There are lots of portraits. The four straight ahead are the Moody children. 

The first room is Libbie's room. She's the youngest girl and the only one to attend the local schools. She graduated from Ball High School and then went to Washington for "finishing school".  I can't imagine what happens here but she didn't like it and didn't go back. It's an odd shaped room. 

To the right is a bathroom that she shared with her sister, Mary. So Mary would have to go into Libbie's room to get to the bathroom. Not many sisters would have liked that.

Then to the left of the bed is this little cubby. I'm not sure that's how I would have used that space but it wasn't my room.

Next was Mary's room. Another odd shaped room because of the turrets. The dress that's on the mannequin is the one that she wore for her debut. On the "Mary" audio version, she gives a little insight into what people wore back then. For example, younger girls always wore black tights and short dresses but as they got older, they wore longer dresses. Girls 16 and younger wore their hair long whereas older girls and women wore their hair up. Boys wore dresses until they were three. Then they graduated to short pants, knickers and finally long pants when they turned 15.

Mary's bedroom leads directly into the master bathroom of her parents. So during Victorian times, married couples didn't often sleep in the same room. I think this room, by design, would have been the husband's room.

Then the connecting bathroom would have made more sense. This was the "front bathroom" or the master that Mr. and Mrs. Moody used. The canister looking thing is a hot water tank. The toilet-looking thing that is the front of the photo is a bidet, which "Mary" says was used in place of toilet paper to clean yourself. This bathroom had a shower head as well which was only used by Mr. Moody. The water pressure from a shower was thought to be too harsh for a woman's delicate skin. There's no storage in this bathroom.

Then came Mr. Moody's dressing room.

In both the bathroom and Mr. Moody's dressing room are these step through windows that lead to the balcony. I don't know why but I love these windows.

Next is the Moody's bedroom.  In theory, this would have been the wife's room, assuming they slept separately. This was another way they defied? convention of the times. They shared a room. The windows have a lovely view. There was no air conditioning in the house and the windows were situated to catch the Gulf breeze. However, there were no screens on the windows either so note the mosquito netting on the bed.

The Moody's bedroom, led to this room, which is thought to be a nursery (which is why I assumed the previous room belonged to the wife). Mrs. Moody used this room as her private study. She had a bed where she could rest if needed, a dressing table to help her get ready.

There's also her writing desk from where she ran the household. There was a random bathtub in this room as well. I guess to bathe the children in the nursery?

When you come out of the room, there's this hallway with a door at the end.

It leads to another balcony!

The two rooms along the hall belonged to WL Moody, Jr's sons, Shearn and William III. The boys went off to boarding school and most likely didn't spend a whole lot of time here. Mary Moody Northen uses these two rooms as "galleries" to display some of her collections. In this room there are tributes to the women of the Mansion (she, her sister and her mother).

This second room was closed for remodeling but the door was open so I took a photo without going in. Here she has displayed the doors that were at her grandfather's house on Tremont. That house was demolished in 1941 and she wanted to preserve some of the items.

The boys bathroom. No shower head in this one.

This was the "guest" room, though guests hardly ever stayed there. The audio comment was why should they when the Moodys owned so many hotels? But, this room was kind of off to itself toward the back of the house. It has windows on two sides so I would imagine when they were open, you'd get a lovely breeze. Usually during the summer months, the family would go some place cooler and Mr. Moody would stay in Galveston. During those days, Mr. Moody would sleep in this room as it was more cooler. There's a bathroom to the right as well.

What we aren't seeing is the upstairs. These back stairs are the only way to get up there (aside, I would assume from the elevator). 

The floor plan looks pretty cool. There's a theater up there as well as additional bedrooms all of which are now used for offices and storage. Too bad you can't go up. According to the sign, there's an amazing view of the city from there.

The historical marker in front of the home.

We enjoyed the visit and the free audio tour that you can listen to on your phone is pretty good. It's nice to know what you're looking at. I can't imagine walking up those front steps like I lived here.

W.L. Moody, Jr died in 1954 and his daughter, Mary moved back in. She'd lost her husband a few months before. She lived in this house until 1983. I sure am glad she preserved it and then opened up for others to see and appreciate.

Galveston Historic Homes: Sealy Avenue

Here's another installment of historic houses in Galveston. One street north of Broadway is Sealy. While the homes on this street are not as elegant or as big as those on Broadway, they are no less historically significant.

1122 Sealy Avenue: Best-Lucas House. The house was built in 1866 on a lot purchased by Catherine Best. In 1871, the house was sold to Thomas Lucas and his wife Catherine. Lucas was a bricklayer. He built several houses in a row that were called Lucas Row. Unfortunately, those homes were lost in the storm of 1900. He used the ruble to build the Lucas Apartments at Broadway and 14th street. They are currently called Casa Familia.

1318 Sealy Avenue: William and Adele Skinner House. The house was built in 1896 by William Cooke Skinner. Skinner was a banker. At the time of his death in 1953, he was an auditor for the Stewart Title Company. The house has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and 3,900 sqft.

1417 Sealy Avenue: Thomas Chubb House. The house was built in 1859 for Commodore Thomas Chubb. He was the harbor master for Galveston Harbor from 1882 to 1886. Thomas Chubb (1811 - 1886) was from Massachusetts and was employed by the US Navy when he was seven. That's right, I said seven! In 1836, he arrived in Galveston to accept an appointment as Admiral in the Texas Navy. He remained in Galveston until 1861 when he became a Commander in the Confederate Navy. He married Phoebe Briggs in 1828 and they had eight kids. When she died in 1867, he married Mrs. Martha Sturgis that same year and sold this house. Other owners were John Wallis and Walter Gresham (of Bishop's palace fame).

1428 Sealy Avenue: Julius H. Ruhl Residence. Julius Ruhl came to Galveston in 1872. Her served as a cashier/clerk for the mercantile firm of Kauffman and Runge until his death in 1882. Ruhl had this home built in 1874 and it remained in his family until 1962. It has five bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and 4,852 sqft.

1627 Sealy Avenue: Trube Castle. John Clement Trube came from Denmark and was a real estate agent. In 1860, he married Veronica Durst and they had 10 children. This house was built for him in 1890 and it survived the 1900 storm. It has 30 rooms, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and is 7,039 square feet. There are two ground level apartments that have their own entry. I wonder if they were added later or if they were for servants. Trube died in 1925.

1727 Sealy Avenue: Isabella Offenbach Maas House. Isabella Offenbach was an opera singer. She was singing in Cologne Germany when Samuel Maas heard her. They married in 1844 and he brought her back to Galveston and they had four children. She continued singing. She and Samuel eventually separated and she moved into this house with her daughter and her son-in-law. She lived here until 1891 when she passed away. The house was then occupied by WC Fisher who was a county health officer. He and his family occupied the house until 1928.

1728 Sealy Avenue: Clarke-Jockusch Home. This house is a 1900 storm survivor! Captain Clarke starting stevedoring (stevedores are manual laborers that work on the docks loading and unloading ships) business. In 1885, he formed the Charles Clarke and Company along with Robert Clarke. The company contracted to do dredging, jetty building and harbor improvements. Clarke was also a city of Galveston Alderman. When Clarke passed away, Julius Jockusch purchased the home in 1928. Julius was a grain exporter and was a Consul of Belgium and Germany. Now this house

1802 Sealy Avenue: The Maas House. This house was built in 1886 by Maxwell and Sarah Davis Maas. Maxwell was the son of Isabella Offenbach and Samuel Maas. Max and Sarah had nine children. Max was a merchant and, from 1904-1906, the county tax collector. They sold the house in 1911.

1817 Sealy Avenue: Homesite of Adolph Dolson. This house was built in 1907 by Morris and Rachel Cohen Wansker. Morris owned a dry goods store on Market Street. Morris died in 1921 and the Wansker family lived in the house until 1937 when they sold to Adolph Dolson. Adolph was of Norwegian descent whose parents migrated here in 1860. He was a businessman who served as Galveston's finance commissioner for four terms (1943-1950). He and his wife lived in this house until his death in 1950.

1827 Sealy Avenue: Sonnentheil Home. This home was built in 1886 by Jacob Sonnetheil. His original home burned in the Great fire of 1885. Jacob, with his brother Julius, ran a dry goods store called Sonnetheil and Lion Dry Goods on Market Street. He died in 1908. His wife stayed in the house at least until 1920. At 4,852 square feet, the house has three large bedrooms, a den, a formal dining room, a parlor, a sitting room and two elevators.

2419 Sealy Avenue: Open Gates. This house was built in 1891 by George Sealy. George moved to Texas in 1857 to work with his brother, John, at Ball, Hutchings and Company. They were bankers and dealers in wholesale dry goods. Additionally, George was the president of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad. Despite 15 feet of water in the basement, the house survived the 1900 storm and was sanctuary and shelter for over 400 people. When George's brother, John, died in 1884 leaving $50,000 for a "charitable purpose", George used the money to create the John Sealy Hospital. The house was donated to the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1969 and was used as a conference center. it would appear the conference center is closed. Hopefully, they will open the house for tours.

Those are all the houses that I found on Sealy Avenue (aka Avenue I). I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to live in any of these homes.