Galveston

The Bishop's Palace, also known as Gresham's Castle, is an ornate Victorian house located on Broadway and 14th Street in the East End Historic... District of Galveston, Texas. The American Institute of Architects has listed the home as one of the 100 most significant buildings in the United States, and the Library of Congress has classified it as one of the fourteen most representative Victorian structures in the nation. The house was built between 1887 and 1893 by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton for lawyer and politician Walter Gresham. In 1923 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston purchased the house, and, situated across the street from the Sacred Heart Church, it served as a bishop's residence. After the diocesan offices were moved to Houston, the diocese opened the mansion to the public in 1963, with proceeds from tours being used to help fund the Newman Center, operating in the basement, serving Catholic students at the nearby University of Texas Medical Branch. The home is estimated to have cost $250,000 at the time; today its value is estimated at over $5.5 million. The Galveston Historical Foundation provides self guided tours of the house on weekends.
more

The United States Customs House and Court House, also known as Old Galveston Customhouse, in Galveston, Texas, is a former home of custom house, post... office, and court facilities for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and later for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Completed in 1861, the structure is now leased by the General Services Administration to the Galveston Historical Foundation. The building symbolized the importance and prosperity of Galveston which was Texas' leading seaport and commercial city during the nineteenth century, and the port where most of the imported commercial goods entered the state. The city's business community was primarily concerned with wholesale commerce, and furnished the trade goods for all of Texas, the Indian Territory, and parts of Louisiana and New Mexico. With rising revenue from customs receipts, the United States Congress approved funds in 1855 for a new U.S. Custom House. Supervising Architect of the Treasury Ammi Burnham Young produced the original design for the building in 1857.
more

St. Joseph's Church is a historic church at 2202 Avenue K in Galveston, Texas. It is the oldest German Catholic church in Texas and one of the oldest... buildings in Galveston. St. Joseph's Church was built upon the recommendation of Bishop John Odin in 1860 and dedicated to St. Joseph. It was added to the National Register in 1976.
more

Ashton Villa is a fully restored, historic home located on the corner of 23rd and Broadway in Galveston, Texas, United States. Constructed in 1859,... it was one of the first brick structures in Texas. On January 7, 1859, Colonel James Moreau Brown, a prominent hardware merchant and banker, purchased four lots at the corner of 24th and Broadway in Galveston, on which to build a home. Referencing architectural pattern books current at the time, he modified several plans to design his future home. Using slave labor and skilled European craftsmen, Brown proceeded to build one of the first brick structures in Texas. The three-story house was built in Victorian Italianate style, with deep eaves, long windows and ornate verandas that were topped by lintels made of cast iron. The brick walls were made thirteen inches thick, to help protect against humidity and add strength to the structure. The interior of the home was laid out and designed around a central hall floor plan. Brown's wife, Rebecca Ashton, named the home in honor of one of her ancestors, Lt. Isaac Ashton, a hero in the U.S. Revolutionary War. The house was completed in 1861.
more

King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1979 he was awarded... an Honorary Academy Award for his "incomparable achievements as a cinematic creator and innovator." He was nominated five times for a Best Director Oscar, and won eight international film awards during his career. He was born in Galveston, Texas, where he survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. His grandfather, Charles Vidor, was a refugee of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 who settled in Galveston in the early 1850s. A freelance newsreel cameraman and cinema projectionist, Vidor made his debut as a director in 1913 with The Grand Military Parade. In Hollywood from 1915, he worked as a screenwriter and as director of a series of six short juvenile-delinquency films for Judge Willis Brown before directing his first feature, The Turn in the Road, in 1919. A successful mounting of Peg o' My Heart in 1922 got him a long term contract with Goldwyn Studios, later to be absorbed into MGM.
more

Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the... thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, Hutchison also became the first Texas U.S. senator to receive more than four million votes in a single election. Hutchison is the most senior female Republican senator, and fifth most senior female senator, having assumed office in June 1993 behind Senators Barbara Mikulski , Dianne Feinstein , Barbara Boxer , and Patty Murray . Hutchison was born Kathryn Ann Bailey in Galveston, the daughter of Kathryn Ella and Allan Abner Bailey, Jr., an insurance agent. She has two brothers, Allan and Frank. Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas. She married her first husband, John Pierce Parks, a medical student, on April 8, 1967; they divorced in 1969. She married her present husband, Ray Hutchison, in Dallas on March 16, 1978. They have two adopted children: Kathryn Bailey and Houston Taylor, both adopted in 2001.
more

Katherine Marie Helmond is an American film, theater and television actress, who played Emily Dickinson on Meeting of Minds, as well as such... fictional characters as Jessica Tate on Soap, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?, Doris Sherman on Coach, and Lois Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond. Helmond acted in the television movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden playing Emma Lenora Borden. She appeared in an episode of the short-lived 1976 CBS adventure series, Spencer's Pilots, starring Gene Evans. Helmond gained prominence as Jessica Tate, the ditzy matriarch in Soap on ABC. In 1984 she took the role of Mona Robinson on the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss?. The show was a ratings success, running for eight seasons and finishing in the Nielsen 'Top 10' four straight years. In 1993 she appeared in one episode of the British version of Who's the Boss?, The Upper Hand. From 1995–1997 she starred in the ABC sitcom Coach as Doris Sherman, eccentric owner of the fictional Orlando Breakers professional football team. From 1996 to 2004 Helmond had a recurring role on Everybody Loves Raymond as Lois Whelan .
more

Douglas Corrigan was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. He was nicknamed "Wrong Way" in 1938. After a transcontinental flight from Long... Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, though his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach. He claimed his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass. However, he was a skilled aircraft mechanic and had made several modifications to his own plane, preparing it for his transatlantic flight. He had been denied permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and his "navigational error" was seen as deliberate. Nevertheless, he never publicly admitted to having flown to Ireland intentionally. The son of a construction engineer and a teacher, he was named Clyde Groce Corrigan after his father, but legally adopted the name Douglas as an adult.
more

Ronald James Taylor was an American actor, singer and writer. He grew up in Galveston, Texas and later moved to New York to attend the American... Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, he began working in musical theater, appearing in The Wiz , before getting his break with the 1982 off-Broadway production Little Shop of Horrors. Taylor voiced the killer plant Audrey II in the show, which ran for five years and over 2,000 performances. Taylor created and starred in the musical revue It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, which charted the history of blues music, from its African origin to American success. Originally performed at high schools in Denver as a 45-minute piece, the revue was expanded to two hours, played around the country and opened on Broadway in 1999. It was met with critical acclaim, ran for eight months, and saw Taylor receive two Tony Award nominations. He also had numerous television roles, appearing in The Simpsons, Twin Peaks, Ally McBeal and L.A. Law.
more

Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist. Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland,... Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby Yakima, Washington. He then moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. He played in a number of popular Northwest bands, including The Dynamics, while living in Seattle. In 1965, Coryell moved to New York City where he became part of Chico Hamilton's quintet, replacing Gabor Szabo. In 1967 and 1968, he recorded with Gary Burton. Also during the mid-1960s he played with The Free Spirits. His music during the late-1960s and early-1970s combined the influences of rock, jazz and eastern music. He formed his own group, The Eleventh House, in 1973. The album sold well in college towns and the ensemble toured widely to support that. Following the break-up of this band, Coryell played mainly acoustic guitar, but returned to electric guitar later in the 1980s.
more

King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1979 he was awarded... an Honorary Academy Award for his "incomparable achievements as a cinematic creator and innovator." He was nominated five times for a Best Director Oscar, and won eight international film awards during his career. He was born in Galveston, Texas, where he survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. His grandfather, Charles Vidor, was a refugee of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 who settled in Galveston in the early 1850s. A freelance newsreel cameraman and cinema projectionist, Vidor made his debut as a director in 1913 with The Grand Military Parade. In Hollywood from 1915, he worked as a screenwriter and as director of a series of six short juvenile-delinquency films for Judge Willis Brown before directing his first feature, The Turn in the Road, in 1919. A successful mounting of Peg o' My Heart in 1922 got him a long term contract with Goldwyn Studios, later to be absorbed into MGM.
more

Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the... thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, Hutchison also became the first Texas U.S. senator to receive more than four million votes in a single election. Hutchison is the most senior female Republican senator, and fifth most senior female senator, having assumed office in June 1993 behind Senators Barbara Mikulski , Dianne Feinstein , Barbara Boxer , and Patty Murray . Hutchison was born Kathryn Ann Bailey in Galveston, the daughter of Kathryn Ella and Allan Abner Bailey, Jr., an insurance agent. She has two brothers, Allan and Frank. Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas. She married her first husband, John Pierce Parks, a medical student, on April 8, 1967; they divorced in 1969. She married her present husband, Ray Hutchison, in Dallas on March 16, 1978. They have two adopted children: Kathryn Bailey and Houston Taylor, both adopted in 2001.
more

Katherine Marie Helmond is an American film, theater and television actress, who played Emily Dickinson on Meeting of Minds, as well as such... fictional characters as Jessica Tate on Soap, Mona Robinson on Who's the Boss?, Doris Sherman on Coach, and Lois Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond. Helmond acted in the television movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden playing Emma Lenora Borden. She appeared in an episode of the short-lived 1976 CBS adventure series, Spencer's Pilots, starring Gene Evans. Helmond gained prominence as Jessica Tate, the ditzy matriarch in Soap on ABC. In 1984 she took the role of Mona Robinson on the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss?. The show was a ratings success, running for eight seasons and finishing in the Nielsen 'Top 10' four straight years. In 1993 she appeared in one episode of the British version of Who's the Boss?, The Upper Hand. From 1995–1997 she starred in the ABC sitcom Coach as Doris Sherman, eccentric owner of the fictional Orlando Breakers professional football team. From 1996 to 2004 Helmond had a recurring role on Everybody Loves Raymond as Lois Whelan .
more

Douglas Corrigan was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. He was nicknamed "Wrong Way" in 1938. After a transcontinental flight from Long... Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, though his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach. He claimed his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass. However, he was a skilled aircraft mechanic and had made several modifications to his own plane, preparing it for his transatlantic flight. He had been denied permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and his "navigational error" was seen as deliberate. Nevertheless, he never publicly admitted to having flown to Ireland intentionally. The son of a construction engineer and a teacher, he was named Clyde Groce Corrigan after his father, but legally adopted the name Douglas as an adult.
more

Ronald James Taylor was an American actor, singer and writer. He grew up in Galveston, Texas and later moved to New York to attend the American... Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, he began working in musical theater, appearing in The Wiz , before getting his break with the 1982 off-Broadway production Little Shop of Horrors. Taylor voiced the killer plant Audrey II in the show, which ran for five years and over 2,000 performances. Taylor created and starred in the musical revue It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, which charted the history of blues music, from its African origin to American success. Originally performed at high schools in Denver as a 45-minute piece, the revue was expanded to two hours, played around the country and opened on Broadway in 1999. It was met with critical acclaim, ran for eight months, and saw Taylor receive two Tony Award nominations. He also had numerous television roles, appearing in The Simpsons, Twin Peaks, Ally McBeal and L.A. Law.
more

Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist. Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland,... Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby Yakima, Washington. He then moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. He played in a number of popular Northwest bands, including The Dynamics, while living in Seattle. In 1965, Coryell moved to New York City where he became part of Chico Hamilton's quintet, replacing Gabor Szabo. In 1967 and 1968, he recorded with Gary Burton. Also during the mid-1960s he played with The Free Spirits. His music during the late-1960s and early-1970s combined the influences of rock, jazz and eastern music. He formed his own group, The Eleventh House, in 1973. The album sold well in college towns and the ensemble toured widely to support that. Following the break-up of this band, Coryell played mainly acoustic guitar, but returned to electric guitar later in the 1980s.
more