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James Moreau Brown buys future site of Ashton Villa
On this day in 1859, businessman James Moreau Brown purchased four lots
at the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Twenty-fourth Street in
Galveston. On the site he built Ashton Villa, reputed to be the first
brick house in Galveston. He designed the three-story, Victorian
Italianate residence himself and used slave labor and skilled European
craftsmen to build it. To protect the house from the damp, Brown made
the brick walls thirteen inches thick, with an air space between the
exterior and the interior walls. Brown died in 1895; his home withstood
the devastation of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, but its basement was
filled with sand and silt. El Mina Shrine bought the house in 1927 and
used it for the next forty years as business offices. In 1968 the
Shriners offered the property for sale. A campaign led by the Galveston
Historical Foundation raised $125,000 to purchase Ashton Villa, and
funding from both government and private sources helped restore and
refurnish the historic home. Ashton Villa was opened to the public in
1974 and is administered by the Galveston Historical Foundation.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- BROWN, JAMES MOREAU
- ASHTON VILLA
- GALVESTON HURRICANE OF 1900
- GALVESTON HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Big Brazos bridge opens in Waco (1870)
- Nazareth Academy opens (1867)
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