Today is the last day of the 51st Annual Galveston Historic Homes Tour, and I hope most of you had a chance to visit the treasures on the program. The weather has been fantastic this year, and the wildflowers at the Broadway Avenue Cemeteries are as beautiful as ever. I was tempted to make another round of visits this weekend, but, alas, work calls.

I left out a couple of mentions last week because I didn’t want to spoil the stories for those taking the tour this weekend. However, since this blog drops on Sunday morning at 12:01, hard cheese! I loved the 1889 Joseph and Elisabeth Treaccar House and the story of the 1900 storm. Joseph Treaccar was a carpenter by trade, and he built this house and the house next door which was used as a rental property. (Note: The house next door is not in the greatest shape, but it’s livable. I’m sorry for blurting out “And it hasn’t been painted since!” when the porch docent told us the house was built in 1895. The porch docent was fantastic!)

The story goes that Mr. Treaccar made holes in the bottom floor so the rising water would anchor the house and not wash it away (good thing the Galveston Historical Foundation wasn’t around to stop him!). It worked, and the house still stands—with a little help from the current owners. On the tour, they pointed out the wood covering the holes that Treaccar made. You can tell it’s different from the rest, and I’m glad the current owners kept it. I’m certain it will be a good conversation piece for years to come.

As I said last week, the GHF was superb compared to previous years, and people were kept moving, even with seven houses having mandatory bootie calls! No shoes, just bare feet or booties. I’m curious to know the total number of people who took the tour. As a volunteer gatekeeper last week, I had 360 people enter my home in four hours. The record for me is 700 in five hours at the cover house back in 2022. For a Sunday, this was unheard of, but we got them through. I usually do two two-hour shifts, but we were shorthanded, and it was hot. Luckily, the Candy Lady, Beaumont History Bits (Bitsy), and I survived!

The 1899 Felix and Eva Mistrot House (the cover house) is gorgeous both inside and outside, but I wonder about a few things. According to the porch docent, the owners requested that people enter the home with booties or socks. I can understand this, and when you tour the home, you see that all the furniture is museum grade. No sitty no touchy! I’ve asked this question every year: Why does someone who owns such a home put it on the tour in the first place? They know damn well the public likes to touch and sneak a photo. I carry a camera, but the photos stop at the porch; however, I’m usually wired for sound, and I have recordings of the tours since 2012. I find it useful to review past tours and look back at some of the stories the docents added based on their knowledge.

Finally, during the Galveston weekend, I discovered the origin of the biplanes that I enjoyed watching flying over the cemetery. Apparently, they are scallywags, and they do biplane flight tours! I’ll leave a link to their site at the bottom of this blog because I think this is awesome.

Now that the tour is finished, I need to get back to doing research for the Texas Historical Commission’s atlas of cemeteries here in Jefferson County. I want to try to at least fix our side once and for all. I’m tired of the same old questions that I’ve answered before. This is what happens when you have multiple people and leads on a certain area or place. You get overlaps, and it screws things up. I get why the commission wants us to do this; the atlas does need an overhaul. Hopefully, by the new year, I will be able to answer most of the questions to satisfy them and eliminate the overlap, but it is hard to plead your case when you have little evidence to submit.

On that note, I want to get into past historians. I am not a historian; I am a researcher. I’ve always loved history. I imagine that Mr. Gothia would disagree because I would sleep during his classes at Thomas Jefferson High School in the 1980s. It wasn’t his fault; he was a good history teacher. It must have been an after-lunch thing. I’ve always been drawn to English and Welsh history, but World War II history, especially the Pacific theater, has become a major goal for me. I want to learn about both sides of the conflict. I only began my journey on SETX history in 2012. W. T. Block had a lot to do with it at the beginning . . . but.

My first Jefferson County Historical Commission meeting took place in 2012. It was a year to the day that Bill Quick had died. Over the next couple of years, I began to learn about Mr. Quick through those who knew him. I was also honored to be able to look through his papers at the Sam Center in Liberty. I found many things that helped me with my way of researching Florence Stratton in his work. Even though I never met him, Bill taught me how to research, and although he didn’t publish any books, he was, and still is, the guide that I needed. I will always give him the utmost respect.

Until next time . . .

Scallywag Air: https://www.facebook.com/scallywagair

Broadway Cemeteries Galveston Wildflowers:

51st Annual Galveston Historic Homes Tour 2025