What you need to know

The Galveston Historic Homes Tour begins next week, and I am ready! I hope you are too and look forward to seeing you there. Here I want to offer a few tips on tour etiquette that will make your visit much more pleasant.

1. Each ticket is valid for one visit to every house on both weekends. If you can go both weekends, taking the tour with family and friends is a great experience. However, if you only have one weekend or even only one day, then it is better to take the tour with no more than three people. Long lines can be an obstacle. One year I took the opening day tour solo, and there was a point when I passed in front of 14 people because they only had enough room for one more person in the group.
2. Some of the houses are in the same neighborhood, so have a plan to park centrally. You will be able to walk to multiple places without wasting time looking for a parking spot to the various destinations.
3. NO HEELS! I should have put this up top. This is the one thing I’ve never understood. Why would someone wear heels on a home tour that involves walking upstairs and on lovely restored floors? If you do wear heels, you’ll end up walking through some stranger’s house shoeless. There was an instance when a homeowner had their beautiful restored floor damaged by someone who chose not to wear comfortable shoes. The money raised by the tour paid for the floor to be restored once more.
4. Booties! Speaking of shoes, it is always inevitable to have one house on the tour that doesn’t want West End Wanda prancing around in heels or people walking on their newly restored floors. I get it, restoration is expensive! But then why have your home on the tour? Anyway, I digress. This will undoubtedly slow down the number of people taking the tour. So, there may be some waiting time.
5. In popular homes, such as the cover house, it may be better to visit at the opening, during lunchtime, or near the last tour (6 p.m.). I’ve found that these times have fewer lines.
6. Volunteers. Most of the people checking your ticket, selling you the excellent wares that the Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF) has to offer, and who are stationed throughout the property are all volunteers. This means they are not getting paid. The white shirt-black pants army is there to keep the tour rolling and help you visit these beautiful homes. I say this because when you find yourself in a line, know that most of these people are doing the best they can to give you a great experience. Concerning the historical knowledge of these places, I am looking forward to seeing what the GHF will offer its volunteers. One year, I volunteered to be a docent on the front porch and all I got was a 3 x 5 index card of information. I’ll get into this next week.
7. Visit the City Cemetery! The wildflowers are lovely and a great photo opportunity for photographers.
8. Make sure to look for the cemetery tours hosted by Kathleen Maca. They sell out fast! The reason is that she is a great storyteller and has written several books on Broadway’s prominent cemetery.

Until next week, I bid you adieu! And remember, no heels!

It’s that time of year again, and the Galveston Historic Homes Tour was in full swing this weekend. Unfortunately the weather was generally a bit hazardous for travel on both mornings, but the Galveston weather was good to go for a tour. It seemed that Poseidon was in full control of the storms, and while most of SETX had rain, Galveston remained dry during the tour hours. Thank you, Poseidon!

I missed the opening day but was determined to experience the splendor that I have become used to in recent years. So with the weather a non-event on our tour, we headed for the 1893 James and Violet Waters House. I thought it best to try to see the showcase house first since there may be long lines later, and I was correct. I guess arriving 30 minutes before the tour started clinched my early entry. Having said that, overall, the wait time for this year’s tour was notably shorter than in previous years, most likely on account of the weather.

Looking at the nine new entries, I noticed that most of the properties were smaller. However, this doesn’t detract from the beauty of the restoration work at all. I can honestly say that all the houses were gems, and it may have been the weather that kept people away. On enquiring with the docents, I found out that a couple of the houses saw between 900 and 1000 visitors this weekend. Incredible. I am sure that these numbers will be up next weekend since the weather is forecast to be in the 60s in the morning reaching the 80s in the afternoon with little humidity.

Our total tour experience lasted around six hours. This also included lunch, so as I’ve said in previous years, most people can do the tour in a day. But if you have time constraints, then here are a few of my favorites:

Charles Marschner Building (1905)

Charles and Catherine Albertson House (1870)

McDonald- Blake House        

Benjamin Barnes Tenant Cottage

FYI:

I did find it interesting that this year’s tour was the fastest yet, but there were three houses where the owners requested visitors to wear booties. Compared to previous years—and given the weather, I actually thought there would have been more bootie requests, but fortunately there weren’t. These three houses require you to slip on booties:

James and Violet Waters House (1893)

Charles and Catherine Albertson House (1870)

Howard and Kate Mather House (1887)

I hope to see you on the tour! I will be there again on Saturday with an additional stop at Old City Cemetery on Broadway to photograph the wildflowers.