Unboxing History

Blazing History: Galveston's Fires and the Fight to Save the Island

• Unboxing History | History Expert Jodi Wright-Gidley & Galveston Author Christine Hopkins • Season 1 • Episode 6

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In this episode of Unboxing History, hosts Christine Hopkins and Jodi Wright-Gidley share a rare fire bucket from the early 1900s held in the Galveston County Museum's collection. They are joined by James Anderson, author of 'Galveston Burning: A History of the Fire Department and Major Conflagrations,' to discuss significant fires that reshaped Galveston, including the devastating 1885 fire. Anderson provides fascinating insights into early firefighting techniques, fire station history, and the importance of fire maps from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. The discussion highlights historic buildings lost to fire and the evolution of fire safety measures. The episode concludes with information about the museum's resources for historical research and visiting details.

Theme Music: 🎼G COUNTY JAZZ, Shawn Schoellkopf ©️2024


Chapters and Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Unboxing History

00:28 This Month's Artifact: The Fire Bucket

02:06 Interview with James Anderson: Author of Galveston Burning

03:07 Firefighting Measures and Historical Fire Maps

07:52 Historic Fires and Their Impact on Galveston

13:57 Notable Buildings Lost to Fires

17:40 The Texas City Explosion of 1947

18:36 The Role and Decline of Fire Boats

19:32 Where to Find James Anderson's Book

21:50 Resources at the Galveston County Museum

23:14 Visiting the Galveston County Museum

23:58 Conclusion 



Thank you for listening to Unboxing History, presented by the Galveston County Museum.
For more information, visit our website.

History of the Galveston County Museum
The Galveston County Museum was formed in 1976. It was located on Market Street for many years. After Hurricane Ike damaged the HVAC and electrical systems in 2008, the unharmed artifacts were moved. Now, the museum is located in the Galveston County courthouse building at 722 Moody/21st Street in Galveston.

​Galveston County Museum is a joint project of the Galveston County Commissioners Court and Galveston County History, Inc. The museum cares for a collection of 20,000 artifacts and archives. We also maintain the Historical Commission's library. If you are interested in research or donating an artifact related to Galveston County history, please call 409.766.2340.

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[00:00:00] 

[00:00:05] Christine Hopkins: Welcome to Unboxing History. I'm Christine Hopkins, a local author and Galveston expert. 

[00:00:10] Jodi Wright-Gidley: And I'm Jodi Wright-Gidley, director of the Galveston County Museum.

[00:00:14] Christine Hopkins: Every month, the Galveston County Museum unboxes an artifact that's part of the Museum's collection as part of our Unboxing History podcast. So, Jodi, what's our treasure this month, our artifact? 

[00:00:28] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Our artifact for the month is a bucket, but it's not just any old bucket. This is A fire bucket. So this bucket was used by fire departments and firemen in bucket brigades in the early 1900s.

[00:00:42] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Early fire buckets would have been wood and then leather and then metal. And so this would have been used, there's a fire, we need to get water to put out the fire, so people would line up and pass buckets along, getting water from a water source, passing it to the fire. So the bucket never needed to sit down, [00:01:00] it has a cone shaped bottom, never needed to sit down.

[00:01:03] Jodi Wright-Gidley: The other thing that made this bucket, um, you know, specifically for fire buckets is that it was cone shaped and so no one would take off and use it for something else. It was unattractive to be used for any other reason. So this was, you know, designated fire bucket. And the other thing that has been said is that the cone shape could have been used to break ice.

[00:01:23] Jodi Wright-Gidley: If there was icy water around that you needed to pull your water from. So that's the cone shaped bucket, fire bucket. It's pretty rare and so this one has been in the museum's collection for a very long time. 

[00:01:34] Christine Hopkins: Wow, well this is really a unique piece. I've never seen a bucket like that. I think most people, I would say 99.9% of people have never seen a bucket that was shaped like a cone versus a flat bucket. So we're going to be talking to a guest who is an expert on fires in Galveston as well as the life and what it was like for the fire stations at the time. 

[00:01:56] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Alright. 

[00:01:57] Christine Hopkins: One of the wonderful things about Galveston is [00:02:00] that we have several local authors that are experts in a certain area of history related to Galveston.

[00:02:06] Christine Hopkins: So today we have James Anderson. He is the author of Galveston Burning, A History of the Fire Department and Major Conflagrations. This is his book. So James, what just made you write a book about fire, the fires in Galveston? What was the motivation? 

[00:02:23] James Anderson: It was, you know, I've always been interested in, you know, history.

[00:02:27] James Anderson: And when I was giving tours, we talk about the fires of Galveston, but you can't find one source that just covers all the fires and when I started researching, I found the last real book, even which touched on any of it was written in 1926. And so it was like, okay, it needs updated. And I started finding more, more stuff that wasn't even in books.

[00:02:48] James Anderson: And so that's kind of where the book came from. 

[00:02:52] Christine Hopkins: It's an important history and I think these things really change Galveston and changed what the Island look like and, and you even, you always read [00:03:00] about these big fires and big. like in Chicago, San Francisco, and so, you know, to learn how it impacted us, I think is so important.

[00:03:07] Christine Hopkins: So, what type of measures did city leaders in Galveston and probably other cities around the county, as well as across the country, what types of things did they do to protect the community and its citizens? 

[00:03:21] James Anderson: Um, kind of some of the biggest things is first, they would establish fire limits for their town.

[00:03:26] James Anderson: So they would say within this certain district, we can't have anything new built that would be extremely flammable. You know, anything that was older that could come into flame, we're gonna move it further out. We're gonna require newer building codes. We would establish the, um, bell towers so that way we could ring with there was a fire.

[00:03:44] James Anderson: Mm-Hmm, . Um, they would also, uh, create, you know, maps that would show what buildings were there, what they were made of, how tall, you know, if there was a cistern nearby, what the water sources were, various things like that. 

[00:03:56] Christine Hopkins: And I was reading in your book about those fire maps, and the [00:04:00] company was called Sanford?

[00:04:01] James Anderson: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. 

[00:04:03] Christine Hopkins: Sanborn. Okay. And, and they still continue to do maps, I read. 

[00:04:07] James Anderson: Yes. They are still current. In fact, most of the ones that I use, you can actually find online. Um, but they continue doing them to this day. And what's unique about them is when you look at it, of course, you know, it's an overall map of the city, and then, um, you will go into a certain section, it will show you the street, the lot, show you the you like in color, whatever the color is, if it's red, it's brick, but yellow and then it will tell you how many stories tall the building is.

[00:04:36] James Anderson: It will tell you if there's a water source nearby, um, gives you all sorts of really unique stuff. Even if you're not studying fires, it's still a unique book to find, you know, uh, info on. 

[00:04:46] Christine Hopkins: Well, and so people could always research, um, maps in the past for their own city. They could look it up on the Library of Congress.

[00:04:54] James Anderson: Um, Library of Congress, the one I go is the Perry Castaneda Map Collection with the University of [00:05:00] Texas. 

[00:05:00] Christine Hopkins: Okay, 

[00:05:01] James Anderson: Perry Castaneda. 

[00:05:03] Christine Hopkins: So if you're interested in that history, then look that up. But no, I was fascinated because it did. It said, wood, brick, where the water was and I mean, it's a lot of detail, especially given the time and I can't imagine what it took to do that.

[00:05:14] Christine Hopkins: How often did they do those maps? 

[00:05:16] James Anderson: They were sporadic. So I know like for Galveston, um, we have the 1877 map, there's 1885 map, 1889, 1912, 1947. So, it was more like the city would decide that they wanted to have a map done.

[00:05:31] Christine Hopkins: Based on development. 

[00:05:32] James Anderson: Yeah. I'd say development and growth of the city type thing is what a map would be done.

[00:05:36] Christine Hopkins: You know, there's these beautiful pictures of the old fire stations in your book, some of which that came from the Galveston County Museum. So tell us like what fire stations, what were they like?

[00:05:47] Christine Hopkins: Where were they on the island and are any of those buildings still around? 

[00:05:50] James Anderson: Early fire stations? I, Very early on the fire stations were really more just for like the storage of the equipment. 

[00:05:56] Christine Hopkins: That's interesting. 

[00:05:57] James Anderson: Really wasn't much to the building other than [00:06:00] just okay we got a place to store the fire truck or you know the equipment.

[00:06:04] James Anderson: Later on they would of course incorporate like bunk rooms and stuff like that so the men could stay at the firehouse and so in case of fire they could quickly make it to the fire. We do still have several of the originals on the island. Of course our most favorite is the Star State which is over I think it's like 29th and Market.

[00:06:22] James Anderson: Okay. It's just been restored. 

[00:06:23] Christine Hopkins: Oh, yes. Okay.

[00:06:24] James Anderson: Um, there's one. It's actually over at 16th and K, which is a private residence now. It is one of the originals. Um, we also have, if I remember correctly, there's one is more recent. It's actually over on Avenue P, uh, and it's now an apartment complex, um, but it was sold off about the 1950s.

[00:06:43] James Anderson: But I think my favorite one, uh, when you're driving down Broadway, uh, it's called the Apostolic Firehouse, and it is actually firehouse number six. Uh, that was sold off and that's where one of our ghost stories is as well. 

[00:06:55] Christine Hopkins: Oh wow! And that's on Broadway? 

[00:06:57] James Anderson: Yeah that's on Broadway. 

[00:06:58] Christine Hopkins: Uh, where on Broadway? 

[00:06:59] James Anderson: Um, [00:07:00] I think if I remember correctly it's around about 40th and Broadway.

[00:07:03] Christine Hopkins: Ok. I think I've seen it before. Wow that's interesting. And the one he's talking about on Market, there's a part of Galveston that is called West Market, where there's some different restaurants and different things on that side. And that . building was really falling apart, so I'm glad someone bought it.

[00:07:17] Christine Hopkins: And is working to restore it? 

[00:07:18] James Anderson: Yeah. The Galveston Historic Foundation had gone in and, you know, uh, protected it by rebuilding the building, saving the front and all, and now is selling it off so somebody can complete the interior restoration. 

[00:07:29] Christine Hopkins: Wow, that's amazing. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. So in your book you really break down the different districts of Galveston, the commercial district, the wharves district, uh, the residential and the warehouse district.

[00:07:42] James Anderson: Yeah. 

[00:07:43] Christine Hopkins: So, oh. Overall, I know there's many fires, but which fire sticks out in your mind as something that really changed Galveston?

[00:07:52] 

[00:07:52] James Anderson: Now, we could easily say it was this fire, this fire, but I think most people would say it was the 1885 fire. I mean, because that fire, you [00:08:00] know, literally destroys 42 blocks of the city.

[00:08:02] James Anderson: There's 568 homes that are lost and it starts from pretty much the Harbor going all the way to the Gulf. So it stretches completely across the city. So it all walks of life were affected by this fire. 

[00:08:14] Christine Hopkins: Because it went from commercial all the way to residential all the way up. 

[00:08:17] James Anderson: Oh yeah. 

[00:08:17] James Anderson: And so with that fire, you know, it really kind of destroyed the big portion of the center of the city.

[00:08:23] James Anderson: And so the city had to figure out, you know, how do we stop that from ever happening again? 

[00:08:29] James Anderson: So I think that fire really caused, the city kind of looked back at, okay, if we're gonna be building all these magnificent homes and structures, what can we do to protect ourselves? And I think that was kind of one of the biggest things 'cause unfortunately. Shortly after that fire, um, you know, the city did go in and they, uh, had decided that we need to do, um, fireproof building materials. And so, you know, houses need to be made of stone or brick and, you know, we don't want to have anything of wood anymore. If it is wood, it has to have a fire [00:09:00] break and stuff like that.

[00:09:01] James Anderson: Um, but they also required that the roofs were non flammable. And so they required at that point that we had to use slate shingles, which would later come back to haunt them in 1900. 

[00:09:11] Christine Hopkins: Yes. And for people that don't know, tell them what was the implications of having a slate roof in the 1900 Storm. 

[00:09:20] James Anderson: Yeah. With the high winds of the 1900 Storm, these slate shingles are being ripped from roofs and they're being hurled through the air. You know, people are being maimed and decapitated, Um, people being killed, you know, and the city of Galveston realizes very shortly after the storm that this requirement, you know, could come back to really be a big, you know, thing that would haunt them for their lives.

[00:09:43] James Anderson: Shortly after the storm, you do see a retraction in the newspaper of the requirement. It's no longer slate shingles. 

[00:09:50] Christine Hopkins: You know, it's, it's the, speaking of slate, you know, when Hurricane Ike happened in 2008, one of my neighbors had a slate roof. And, um, their, [00:10:00] which is kind of surprising after all those years, but they had a slate roof.

[00:10:03] Christine Hopkins: And I was in my backyard looking, you know, looking around and there was a piece of slate. And it was just sliced right into the, my neighbor's house, you know, it's pretty amazing when you think about the power of nature and wind and what that, what that would have been like in 1900 for one, but that just power, but you know, with the fire of 1885, how quickly did it travel?

[00:10:24] Christine Hopkins: Do you know? 

[00:10:25] James Anderson: The 1885 fire, it traveled pretty much overnight, like it started around about six or seven o'clock of the evening and by about two or three o'clock in the morning, most of the cities engulfed. It was out by about seven eight o'clock that next morning, but it had burned overnight and it's because we had a very high wind blowing.

[00:10:45] James Anderson: We had very low water pressure, you know, and just by the time the fire department could really even try to get to it, it was already out of control. 

[00:10:53] Christine Hopkins: And it started at which building? 

[00:10:54] James Anderson: It actually started at 16th and Strand at the Vulcan Iron Works and just kind [00:11:00] of billowed from there and then worked its way across.

[00:11:03] Christine Hopkins: Well, and, and I, one of the things that I read about in your book was that, you know, making the decision to pave the streets helped with response. And I don't know where the streets paved yet by 1885. 

[00:11:14] James Anderson: By 1885, we had a lot of the streets.

[00:11:16] James Anderson: It wasn't really true pavement. Some of our earliest streets were actually crushed oyster shell. We had Market Street where they had creosoted logs that were put in, um, and by about probably I'd say by 1885, early 1900s, we started to kind of get the bricks and stuff. 

[00:11:34] James Anderson: Where it's actually a much smoother way because the reason it will, what happened was. Uh, one of the early fires in 1857, the Ursuline Convent catches fire. . . And the firetruck is racing to get there. It gets bogged down the sand and actually breaks its axle and never makes it to the convent and the convent burns.

[00:11:52] Christine Hopkins: Oh my gosh, that's terrible. Oh, that's just terrible. And you think about the lives that are lost and 

[00:11:57] James Anderson: Yeah. 

[00:11:57] Christine Hopkins: You know, and so forth. And I think we [00:12:00] talked about it a little bit. One of the things that they set up early on to, was a warning system for fires. 

[00:12:08] James Anderson: Yeah, the, early on, the very kind of the first thing was we had a fire watch tower.

[00:12:12] Christine Hopkins: A fire watch tower. 

[00:12:13] James Anderson: And so, that was put at the, uh, market house. Mhmm. And every Whenever there's a fire, the bell was supposed to be rung to let them know. Unfortunately, it kind of fell out of favor very quickly and really it started being used just for the start of the workday and the end of the workday.

[00:12:27] James Anderson: Um, but the fire telegraph system became the more important part because what they did is they actually strung wires across the city. And they would have it set up where there would be a box on the street near to where the fire was. And it would correspond to a, like a wall on, in the fire house. Even the fire chief had one in his office, in his house and the bar that, um, when it would ring, it would show where the fire was now may not show the exact building, but it shows kind of like the street corner.

[00:12:57] James Anderson: So they can know that they need to get to that [00:13:00] block in order to get to the fire. 

[00:13:02] Christine Hopkins: That's pretty amazing. 

[00:13:02] James Anderson: And the very first fire alarm system. It was hit or miss, you know, because it didn't quite work as good as it's supposed to, but over time it became much better. 

[00:13:11] Christine Hopkins: And how many of those boxes were in that first system?

[00:13:13] James Anderson: Um, the first system, I've read notes here and there that say there was about 70. 

[00:13:19] Christine Hopkins: Wow. 

[00:13:19] James Anderson: Um, but over time I think it got to over 200. 

[00:13:22] James Anderson: A few times we had fires where even though the box was set, the fire alarm never rang.

[00:13:29] James Anderson: So sometimes we were running to the firehouse saying, there's a fire, you need to get here type thing. 

[00:13:34] Christine Hopkins: Wow. Wow. That's really interesting. And you know, um, so there you're talking about the fire of 1885, the devastation. And then there's been so many fires, of course, in our history. But, you know, your book focuses on a chapter, which I love, is historic buildings.

[00:13:50] James Anderson: Oh yeah. 

[00:13:50] Christine Hopkins: And there are some buildings that you just look at the pictures and you're thinking, Oh my gosh, I can't believe that was lost in a fire. So which, which buildings in Galveston, [00:14:00] stand out to you that were lost due to a fire? 

[00:14:02] James Anderson: You know, probably one of my favorites is gonna be the Beach Hotel. It was such a big grand hotel right there sitting on the beach. Um, the fact that it went down probably in less than 18 minutes. Uhhuh, , you know, 'cause it was a completely wooden building. 

[00:14:16] Christine Hopkins: 18 minutes. 

[00:14:16] James Anderson: Yeah. It really, it may be more than that, but it wasn't very much longer. You know, but completely wooden structure, completely burns.

[00:14:23] James Anderson: And even after the fire in the surf, you see all of the, uh, cedar pilings are just still sitting in the surf after the building burned. You have the Electric Pavilion which was actually built just prior to that hotel which was supposed to be used for the Saengerfest Singing Festival would come to town and due to a short circuit in the coffee maker it actually caused the building to catch fire.

[00:14:48] James Anderson: It had only been in the area for two years and it burned to the ground, but it was supposed to be a big kind of like amphitheater for various musical bills. But I think of all of 'em, the one that I kind of [00:15:00] miss the most would actually be probably our, um, I just went blank on it. 

[00:15:06] Christine Hopkins: Harmony Hall. 

[00:15:06] James Anderson: Thank you. Uh, Harmony Hall would definitely be the favorite because of the fact it was just such a beautiful, unique structure.

[00:15:13] James Anderson: And it stood right in the middle of town. Um, you know, for of course it was originally built as a, you know, like a. Hall for the Jewish Singing Group. Uh, and they found that it was just too expensive to maintain, so they sold it off to the Galveston Business College. Mm-Hmm. . The business college is, keeps it of course, in 1900 Storm happens.

[00:15:31] James Anderson: They realized just how expensive it's to maintain. So it's sold off to Scottish Rite. . And the Scottish Rite has it. Unfortunately after they get their organ repaired and it's being put on the third floor, they're downstairs playing billiards and reading unbeknownst the organ catches fire, catches the building on fire.

[00:15:48] James Anderson: And the only reason they know is a fireman rushed in to tell them your building's on fire.

[00:15:52] 

[00:15:52] Christine Hopkins: Wow. 

[00:15:53] James Anderson: So it burns in February of 1928. Hmm. 

[00:15:57] Christine Hopkins: Well, and there's an interesting tidbit about that [00:16:00] building.

[00:16:01] James Anderson: Yeah. The neat thing about it and most people don't realize is. The current building, which was built just shortly after, houses the original marble staircase to Harmony Hall.

[00:16:10] James Anderson: Um, after the fire, the staircase was actually removed and put across the street as they were clearing and rebuilding. And as they were rebuilding, they moved the staircase in, kind of repositioned it and put it in the new building. 

[00:16:23] Christine Hopkins: And that's a solid building. 

[00:16:25] James Anderson: Oh yeah. 

[00:16:26] Christine Hopkins: What's the most interesting thing that you found when you were doing your research for this book? You know, what surprised you?

[00:16:32] James Anderson: Researching? There's al always some fun stuff that you come across and, you know, at the time probably wasn't fun to find out, but I think the most intriguing was when I found out that, uh, during the volunteer period . We had several volunteers that when the fire company would arrive, uh, at a fire shortly after, they would get paid for, you know, in either like in a silver trumpet, a nice dinner, or they get monetary.

[00:16:57] James Anderson: So there was a couple firefighters that [00:17:00] decided, well, if we're gonna get paid, we're gonna go set our own fires. So that way our company can arrive on time, we can put it out and we can get paid for it. 

[00:17:07] Christine Hopkins: Oh my gosh. That's, it's sad, but I guess desperate people. Yeah, unfortunately. But, um, well, thank you so much, James.

[00:17:15] Christine Hopkins: I mean, this is. It's just an interesting history that people don't necessarily think about. And I mean, it's important because these things, these buildings that are lost and the impact that these fires have, Oh, I know one more thing that I wanted to talk about was in addition to the 1885 fire in Galveston County, there was another very impactful event that, um, that really changed one of the cities nearby.

[00:17:40] Christine Hopkins: Do you want to talk about Texas City? 

[00:17:42] James Anderson: Oh, absolutely. Um, with Texas City, of course, we had the major explosion and, you know, the fire department had been there at the first explosion, but when the second one happened, of course, it really decimated the city. 

[00:17:53] Christine Hopkins: And for people that don't know, what year was that and so forth?

[00:17:56] James Anderson: Uh, it was April [00:18:00] 16th, 1947. 

[00:18:00] James Anderson: 1947. 

[00:18:00] James Anderson: So when the fire hits, there, most of the fire department there. There's nobody to respond to the fire. So the closest is Galveston, and we have a fire boat, so we're able to fight the fire from the water. So it's our fire boat that is actually in some of the original images that shows them fighting the Monsanto plant fire, um, and so you'll see, and it's actually the City of Galveston, which we had purchased in 1930, uh, that is there putting that fire out.

[00:18:30] James Anderson: Well, and with the fire boats, do they still use fire boats? Yes. Tell us about what happened to these important tools at the time. 

[00:18:36] James Anderson: Our fire boats, we really only had two fire boats in our history. We had bought, um, the tug boat, the Charles Clark and retrofitted it, turned it into the very first fire boat and it was doing good, but it was starting to get aged and it was time to replace.

[00:18:49] James Anderson: So we had, uh, spent quite a bit of money to buy the City of Galveston. It was a brand new fire boat, had done very well, had its own pier, everything, Pier 23 is where it's at. [00:19:00] Um, but over time it needed to be repaired. And at the time the city's like, it just doesn't make any sense for us to spend this money on the repair of the ship.

[00:19:09] James Anderson: So they literally let it sit at the pier and it sat and just started to rot away. Eventually it was sold for like 5, 000 for scrap and for the longest time Galveston didn't have a fire boat. And a lot of the local companies started setting up their own little fire boat. Boats. Now we have more like a rescue boat, but it's not really a true fireboat.

[00:19:27] Christine Hopkins: Gotcha. 

[00:19:28] James Anderson: Uh, as we're used to seeing with all the jets. 

[00:19:31] Christine Hopkins: I understand. Well, so, um, tell us where can people find you and find your book and, um, and so forth?

[00:19:39] Christine Hopkins: Well, of course I'm definitely local. Mm-Hmm. . Um, I work down at the, uh, George Manor here in Galveston, but book-Wise, you know, you can find it several places, of course online, there's lots of places you can find it.

[00:19:50] Christine Hopkins: But locally, I always like to point people out to the Galveston Book Shop um, Star Drug has it, Arlan's carries it, um, the Big House Antiques, any of [00:20:00] the Galveston Historic Foundation, um, you know, retail outlets carry it. So there's quite a few places you can get the book. I think even Gaido's sells it too. 

[00:20:07] Christine Hopkins: So. Well are you on social media?

[00:20:10] Christine Hopkins: I am on social media. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, um, I'm slowly getting more, I'm just not quite all there yet. 

[00:20:17] Christine Hopkins: So. 

[00:20:18] Christine Hopkins: Do you plan on any other books? 

[00:20:20] Christine Hopkins: There are books in the works. So there are several that are in the brain. Just got to get them to fall out next.

[00:20:27] Christine Hopkins: Well, thank you so much, James. This is really interesting, and again, you know, this ties into an artifact that is a unique artifact that they have here at the museum. So thanks for coming, and so many of the photos that you have in here are also from the museum, so that's really wonderful. Thank you. 

[00:20:41] James Anderson: Yeah, they were a great resource.

[00:20:43] Christine Hopkins: Well, thanks again. 

[00:20:44] James Anderson: You're very welcome. 

[00:20:45] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So fires have shaped townscapes, people's lives, all throughout history. It really is an amazing story. James's book also includes several photographs from our museum's collection. They're from the 1915 storm when a fire broke [00:21:00] out, .So we always like to work with authors and museums and people doing research to help their projects as well.

[00:21:07] Christine Hopkins: Well, it's really amazing to think about, um, what it would have been like, especially in the 1885 fire. You know, the house that I grew up in, which is in the Lost Bayou District, it was so close to the house next door that we could jump from our porch to their porch. So, when you think about that fire starting in the commercial district on the Strand and going all the way to the beachfront is really something.

[00:21:32] Christine Hopkins: I'm glad we were able to connect this into a great, an author and a story and a book and, and, uh, a wonderful artifact here on the museum. 

[00:21:41] Christine Hopkins: Books like this take a lot of time and research and a lot of resources that may not be just available on the internet with a quick search. So what types of materials for people working on a book or even a family history are available here at the Galveston County Museum?

[00:21:59] Jodi Wright-Gidley: Well we have a lot [00:22:00] available. So our museum is part of the Galveston County Historical Commission and so we house their research library. So the Historical Commission members have worked on research for 50 something years. And so we have subject files where they've gathered articles and things. We have Texas history books that might be rare and hard to find.

[00:22:19] Jodi Wright-Gidley: We have local history from around the County, all the communities around the communities around the County. And we have also the historical marker files. If you were to get a historical marker on your property, the files of the application, all of that research is. is in files that we have. So all of those things are available.

[00:22:38] Jodi Wright-Gidley: And so if you're working on a project, you know, it wouldn't hurt to stop by the museum, make an appointment with us, and we'll see what we have. We may have exactly what you're looking for, um, because we also have our museum collection that we can refer to, not only our research library, but we can go into the artifacts and the archives and we can see, do we have a diary from a particular family member? Do we have, [00:23:00] um, we have several collections of family papers and so if it's the family you're looking for, then you're going to have a treasure trove here. So give us, you know, a chance to see if we can help you out on any research projects.

[00:23:12] Christine Hopkins: Well, now that we've learned about this. interesting bucket. Where can people see this at the museum and where are we located and all the good information? 

[00:23:21] Jodi Wright-Gidley: So the museum is located inside the county building that's at 722 Moody which is also 21st street. So we are free on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 to 4.

[00:23:32] Jodi Wright-Gidley: We do private tours and we have our Padlock Mystery Game that you can play on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, um, if you want to book something with us, go to our website or give us a call. The website's www. galvestoncountyhistory. org. 

[00:23:46] Christine Hopkins: Thanks so much, Jodi. And, I mean, if you haven't been, the Galveston County Museum, it's a treasure.

[00:23:52] Christine Hopkins: so much within this small space that every time you come through, you're going to see something new. Join us next month for a new [00:24:00] episode of Unboxing History.

[00:24:01] Christine Hopkins: Please subscribe and comment about what you'd like to learn more about at the Galveston County Museum. 

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