The Kitchen
The kitchen (above, painted red) is the oldest brick building still standing in Galveston. Originally a two-story building built separately from the main house, the first floor was used as storage; cooking was done on the second floor. The family owned only a few slaves for household service. Their quarters were west of the house, along with a small stable, a carriage house, a cow-pen for the milk cow, and a hen house. The family kept only enough animals for milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. There was a cornfield, a pasture, and a fenced vegetable garden.
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The Cupola
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The Cupola
It is believed that Williams watched the Gulf for incoming vessels, deciphered the signals that indicated what cargo was on board, and rushed downtown to begin trading commodities before the ship actually arrived. McKinney and Williams also owned a racetrack nearby; the cupola would have been an excellent place from which to watch the races. Sarah Williams suffered from cataracts, becoming almost blind before a series of operations restored some of her sight. She quite possibly would have sat in the cupola and done what needlework she could in the bright light.
The cupola also performed an important function in the summer. When the windows were opened, the hot air rising from the house escaped, creating a cooling circulation. The cupola and widow’s walk burned in the 1890’s; they have since been reconstructed.
Hallstand
Circa 1850. A walnut hallstand in the Gothic style, probably made in Mississippi. Unlike most furniture of its era, the hallstand had no obvious historical antecedents. It is a 19th-century invention. After the middle of the century, the hallstand became popular and the focus of considerable design attention. It attained its greatest elaboration and monumentality in the 1860s and 1870s, was rethought and reformed in the 1880s, and gradually declined in scale and importance. This furniture form was extinct by 1920.
