Words of Welcome from Joe Willhelm, GHF President 2011-2012

Joe Willhelm is 2011-2012 president of Galveston Historical Foundation.

Galveston Historical Foundation is the steward for the ELISSA, the Samuel May Williams House, the Bishop’s Palace, the Custom House, Ashton Villa, Garten Verein, St Joseph’s Church, the Menard House, and Menard Hall. Each is a historic treasure that is part of the heritage of our island, state and country. GHF events such as Dickens on the Strand, the Historic Homes Tour, and the Galveston Revival Race bring visitors and business to the area. But equal in importance, are GHF preservation services and resources which work to preserve and revitalize Galveston’s historic neighborhoods and buildings and its maritime heritage.

Galveston Historical Foundation will face significant challenges in the upcoming year. We have been planning a significant fundraising effort that will allow GHF to improve our current assets, expand our role beyond Galveston, and position us for a secure financial future. The time has come to being executing that plan. The first of many needs that we hope to alleviate with the capital campaign is the ELISSA. As many of you are aware, the ELISSA is facing a major restoration effort. After 30 years ELISSA is in need of hull and deck renewal that will strain our resources. After that, we will be tackling the needs of the rest of our assets. We are asking all Board members to take an active role in contributing to the effort and to serve as community leaders to reach out to our members and the public to reach our goals. We must be successful; GHF’s future depends on it.

There is a song by Jamey Johnson that describes a young boy looking at old black and white photographs that his grandfather collected. After asking him what the pictures were about, the grandfather tells the boy a story, but each time the grandfather says “you should have seen it in color”. Preserving history is challenging when time diminishes these memories. After a while, things fade to black and white, people forget why a building, or a house, or an old ship, were ever worth keeping. Then someone comes up and tells them a story, and the story brings these inanimate objects to life. To the people that lived in these houses or sailed the ships, every creak of the wooden floor or the sound of the wind whistling the rigging makes the story come alive, in color.

Galveston Historical Foundation is a premier preservation organization. We preserve the past in order to bring to life the past, to allow people to see the colors of the past. Looking at old photographs of a building cannot show the details of the architecture, the furniture that it holds inside, the people’s stories of their daily lives. Photographs cannot capture the feel of the roll of ship under full sail, the deep blue of the ocean, the wind and spray. We preserve these buildings and the ELISSA to bring to life another time and place, to allow people to look into the lives of our ancestors and see the things they saw, as they were.

I encourage you all to help the Galveston Historical Foundation preserve the past, in color, for the future.

Joe Willhelm
President