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1892 Bishop’s Palace
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Built of stone and steel for the railroad magnate Walter Gresham and his family, this famous house was designed by Nicholas Clayton, Galveston’s premier Victorian-era architect. The Bishop’s Palace is recognized as one of America’s finest examples of Victorian exuberance and Gilded-Age extravagance.
No. 3 on the Places to Visit Map.
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The Bishop’s Palace is one of the best known and most widely recognized historic attractions in the country. It is listed by the U. S. Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark, and has been named by the American Institute of Architects as the 14th most important Victorian building in America.
The house was built from 1887 to 1892 for Colonel Walter Gresham and his wife Josephine, with whom he had nine children. An attorney and entrepreneur, Gresham came to Galveston from Virginia following his service in the Civil War. He was a founder of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, eventually working to bring about the merger of the Santa Fe with the Atchison and Topeka Railroad. He also served in the Texas Legislature.
In Galveston’s great period of mansion building--the 1870s, 80s and 90s--Gresham’s commission of Nicholas Clayton, Galveston’s premier architect, resulted in Clayton’s most spectacular residential design and arguably the finest of the “Broadway beauties.”
Constructed of steel and stone (it survived the Great Storm of 1900 virtually unscathed), the Bishop's Palace soars three stories over a raised basement level, with steep roofs and long sculptural chimneys. The building is classified as "Chateauesque," a derivative of the French revival style popular in the last quarter of the 19th century. It has many distinctive touches, ranging from varicolored stone to round Romanesque and depressed Tudor arches. Its facade features highly articulated carvings of plants, animals, people and other creatures.
The 7,500 square feet of interiors are as lavish, with rare woods and ornate and idiosyncratic details. The front parlor boasts a large fireplace mantel made of Santo Domingo mahogany that was a first-place winner of the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia. In the adjoining music room is a mantel made of onyx, pewter and silver that won a first prize at the New Orleans Exhibition.
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