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Children's Tours
GHF offers school and other groups a variety of oportunities for fun and learning. Using the foundation’s historic properties and facilities, as well as other sites, professional guides convey a sense of the richness of Galveston’s cultural and natural history.
TEXAS SEAPORT MUSEUM, Pier 21 –
Home of the 1877 tall ship ELISSA
Texas Seaport Museum/ELLISA Tour: Students will view the dramatic story of the tall ship ELISSA’s rescue and restoration through the documentary Passage to Galveston: The Story of ELISSA, then tour the 1877 tall ship with a trained guide.
Time: 60 minutes
Cost: $3.00 per student; $4.00 per chaperone
For further enrichment the items below can be added to your Texas Seaport Museum/ELLISA Tour at no additional cost.
Scavenger Hunt: Students in 4th-8th grades will participate in a scavenger hunt that will teach them about the historic Port of Galveston.
Time: 30 minutes
Immigration Experience Students studying immigrants and genealogy will have an opportunity to visit the Immigration exhibit, and use the museum’s Immigration Database. The database contains the names of more than 133,000 immigrants who entered the United States through the Port of Galveston, which was known as the “Ellis Island of the West”.
Time: 30 minutes
ALL ABOARD THE SEAGULL II, Pier 21
GALVESTON HISTORICAL FOUNDATION presents a unique educational experience on the SEAGULL II. From marine exploration to maritime history, the SEAGULL II is a floating classroom offering excursions and adventures. The SEAGULL II is located at Texas Seaport Museum, Pier 21. Reservations required. Contact Mary Castano, GM at 409-765-1700, or email harbortour@aol.com.
Introduction to Galveston Harbor tour: Enjoy 45 minutes of history, wildlife adventure, folklore and more. See Galveston and Galveston Bay from a unique perspective. Experience close-up encounters with big ships, dolphins and seabirds.
Time: 45 minutes
Cost: $6.00 per student & chaperone
Hand on Environmental Science Tour: Floating Classroom/Laboratory
Students breathe the ocean air, study plankton through microscopic lens, pose challenging questions, use the scientific method, check their results with each other; and discuss their findings with the marine biologist aboard.
Time: 90 minutes.
Cost: $12.00 per student and chaperone
Hands on Ornithology Tour: Floating Classroom Laboratory/Birding Excursion
Mysteries of the deep challenge students to take a hands-on, action packed, experimental approach to learning about their environment. With compasses, students will chart their course through harbor and bay. Students will trawl for fish and creatures far below, then examining them in hand and under microscope.
Time: 2 hours.
Cost: $16.00 per student and chaperone
Ship-to-Shore Teacher Workshops: When learning is exciting, teaching is exhilarating. School districts encourage teachers to avail themselves of our curriculum offerings, which enable them to take back to their classrooms fresh approaches to their subjects and renewed enthusiasm for teaching.
PIER 21 THEATER, 21st Street at Harborside Drive
THE GREAT STORM
This outstanding widescreen documentary takes students back to Victorian Galveston, Texas’ wealthiest city, in the days before the 1900 hurricane. Witness the devastation of the deadliest natural disaster in United States history and the amazing story of the seawall’s construction and the grade raising. The Great Storm is shown on the hour.
Time: 30 minutes
Cost: $3.00 per student and 4.00 per chaperone
THE PIRATE ISLAND OF JEAN LAFFITE
This widescreen film chronicles the adventures of the pirate Jean Laffite, who once called Galveston home. The Pirate Island of Jean Laffite begins every hour on the half-hour. Groups must arrive at least 5 minutes before the program begins to provide adequate time for seating.
Time: 30 minutes
Cost: $2.00 per student and 3.00 per chaperone
PLEASE NOTE: Groups must arrive at least 5 minutes before either presentation begins to provide adequate time for seating. There is no admittance once the presentation begins
Bus parking is available in the Pier 21 area for $15 per bus. The fee should be paid to the parking attendant at the Pier 21 lot.
Early open fee: $20 flat rate before 11:00am.
GALVESTON COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM,
2219 Market Street
Learn about the colorful history of the upper Texas coast in the impressively restored 1921 City National Bank Building.
Permanent exhibits include:
Galveston Lighthouses: Beacons of Hope
Students will learn how lighthouses and lightships protected the Texas coast. The Fresnel lens from the South Jetty Lighthouse is the feature of this exhibit.
Native Americans in Galveston County
Learn about Galveston Island’s earliest cultures through realistic displays and archeological evidence.
Time: 60 minutes
Cost: Free to Galveston County students; all others are 50 cents per student
1859 ASHTON VILLA,
2328 Broadway
Tours of this historic house museum focus on the material culture of the Victorian era. A trained guide describes the lives of the home’s residents. The archeology exhibit in the carriage house gallery examines 19th Century material culture.
Time: 60 minutes
Cost: $2.50 per student; $4.00 per chaperone
1839 SAMUEL MAY WILLIAMS HOUSE,
3601 Avenue P
Guided tours of the home of Samuel May Williams, Stephen F. Austin’s personal secretary. Students will see an outstanding video presentation about the life and times of this pioneer entrepreneur.
Time: 60 minutes
Cost: $2.50 per student; $4.00 per chaperone
1839 MICHEL B. MENARD HOUSE,
1601 33rd Street
Built for one of the founders of Galveston and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, the 1838 Michel B. Menard House is the oldest surviving house in Galveston.
Time: 60 minutes
Cost: $2.50 per student; $4.00 per chaperone
Mardi Gras at the Menard House -
January and February only
Celebrate Mardi Gras at the site of Galveston’s first Mardi Gras. Student will learn about Mardi Gras tradition while answering questions for beads. The tour concludes with a King Cake Party under the gazebo
Time: 90 minutes
Cost: $4.00 per student, $4.00 per chaperone
THE STRAND DISCOVERY TOUR
With a trained guide, learn about the history and architecture of the former “Wall Street of the Southwest” during walking tours of this National Historic Landmark District.
Time: 60 minutes
Cost: $2.00 per student and chaperone
CEMETERY TOUR
As students walk the cemetery, they will hear stories of those interred, learn the symbolism on the markers, and observe the artwork of the monument builders and do tomb rubbings.
Time: 90 minutes
Cost: $2.00 per student
NARRATED DRIVING TOURS OF GALVESTON
Guides board your bus and conduct informative tours to historic sites and other places of interest. Tours can be customized to fit your studies.
Time: 1 hour
Cost: $65 per bus
Historic houses are decorated in holiday fashion appropriate to each house museum’s period: the Texas frontier at the 1839 SAMUEL MAY WILLIAMS HOUSE and a Victorian holidays at the 1838 MICHEL B. MENARD HOUSE and 1859 ASHTON VILLA. Arrangements can be made for holiday activities at the above sites.
MUSEUM SHOPS
Our museum shops contain many educational items and unique souvenirs. If you are allowing your students to shop, please inform the person taking your reservation so adequate time can be provided in your itinerary.
OTHER SERVICES
- Arrange tours of other local attractions
- Special tours during Island events
- Complete itineraries for all stops
- In-service programs
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