- 5111 Avenue P ½ [HAR]
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Tag: 77551
- 8 Cedar Lawn Cir. [HAR]
The new pavilion shown in the renderings at top is what Galveston’s Park Board of Trustees want to plant on Stewart Beach, near the end of Broadway and Seawall Blvd. The structure would reorganize the mix of concessions, patrol facilities, parks offices, storage, restrooms, and community meeting space that comprise an existing beach house into 2 adjacent structures suspended above a series of promenades and linked by overhead walkways.
A site plan of the beach from New York architects Rogers Partners shows where the new complex — along with a separate garage and welcome center would go relative to the existing structures that are set to be demolished:
Broadway and Seawall
- 4505 Caduceus Pl. [HAR]
- 1721 61st St. [HAR]
More Gorey than gory in its trimmings, a Queen Anne Galveston home — sporting a slight witch’s hat steeple atop a shingle-sided upper room — popped up on the market just before Halloween. It’s a double-lot property located on a corner 7 blocks from the beach on the East End of the island city. Was it around for the Great Storm of 1900?
On the Fringe
GALVESTON ELEMENTARY STILL IN AFTER-SCHOOL DETENTION 
Well into Burnet Elementary School’s third year of post-Ike limbo, a school district spokesman says one idea is to fix the hurricane-ravaged property’s exterior, roof, and air conditioning so it can be used as warehouse space. There’s “a good chance” FEMA would pay for repairs, but no funds have been negotiated yet. Then there’s the other option: selling the campus. But the district doesn’t think it would get a very good price in the current market, and what if they need to open up a new school a few years later? [Galveston County Daily News] Photo: Galveston ISD
DOWNSIZING THE GALVESTON CHURCH Archbishop Daniel DiNardo details the demo list: “The St. Therese of Lisieux mission building on the Bolivar Peninsula already has been demolished. The new plan adds Our Mother of Mercy church, also on the peninsula, to the list to be torn down. Members of Our Mother of Mercy’s congregation, who have opposed the archdiocese’s plans through litigation, said via e-mail Monday that the church’s fate was still to be decided. They said there would be a mediation session on the issue Friday. Ancillary buildings, but not the main church structures, will be removed at both the Holy Rosary and Sacred Heart campuses. The lot and buildings at Reina de La Paz are slated to be sold. The buildings that comprise the St. Peter the Apostle site are all to be either destroyed or sold. Historic stained glass windows, sacred statues, artwork and other items of architectural or symbolic interest will be preserved, Auxiliary Bishop Joe S. Vasquez said. ‘The church intends to keep them. We won’t throw them away or sell them, and will reuse them locally if possible.’†[Galveston County Daily News]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT WAS MY HOME TOO “The pool was designed in the shape of our scotch terrier head. We moved in shortly after my father,Sam Maceo died. My brother, Sam, my sister Sedgie, my mother and I moved to New Orleans in 1954, when my mother remarried. The house looks great. The wall coverings have changed, but much is still the same. Years ago my mother told me that the building cost in 1951 was aprox. $500,000. I don’t know if that is accurate, but what woud that be in today’s dollars?” [Edward Maceo Plitt, commenting on The Balinese Room After-Party Pad: A Little Palm Springs in Galveston]
Note: Story updated again below.
Cribbing from Ellen Beasley and Stephen Fox’s Galveston Architecture Guidebook, Modern architecture fan Ben Hill writes in to tell us that “one of the most important houses in this part of Texas,” was recently put up for sale:
This is the only house in the greater Houston area designed by E. Stewart Williams of Palm Springs, CA. Williams designed Sinatra’s house there, and this house was built for Sam Maceo, owner of the Balinese Room in Galveston.
The home fits into two curvy streets at the center of Cedar Lawn. Its uh, “nightclub” pedigree is maintained by a circular drive with a low-slung porte-cochere in front and the swanky pool in back. And in between?
A LINE IN THE VANISHED SAND Galveston Planning Commissioner Chula Ross Sanchez, surveying damaged properties on the island 3 months after after Hurricane Ike: “The General Land Office (GLO) has drawn a new line in the sand four-and-half feet above sea level. People can stabilize their properties on the beach but we cannot issue new construction certificates in that zone. The line is normally based on vegetation but the storm wiped that out and the new line is based on mean sea levels. Drawing that line, many houses have ended up on public property.” [OffCite]
FEMA-approved colors liven up this property-damage-assessment map for 24,000 structures in Galveston.
The red areas are “unsafe; leaning; structurally unsound; completely destroyed; collapsed or structure missing.”
Yellow means “general interior flooding; wind damage; or significantly damaged, but repairable.”
And green means go! “No damage or only minor damage; or missing siding; shingles; handrails; breakaway walls.”
The gray areas? “Flood zone.”
More colorful maps of other Hurricane-Ike-hit areas of the city are available on the City of Galveston website.
- Damage Assessment Map for Areas 61st Street East, 61st Street West to Jamaica Beach, and Jamaica Beach West to San Luis Pass as of 10/15/08 [City of Galveston, via Hair Balls]
- City Releases Damage Assessment Map & Issues Guidance for Property Owners [City of Galveston]
