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Old Galveston lives again in restored Ashton Villa
On this day in 1974, the restored Ashton Villa, one of the first brick
structures in Texas, was opened to the public. The historic Galveston home
was built in 1859 by James Moreau Brown, who by the late 1850s had
developed the largest hardware store west of the Mississippi. Brown
purchased four lots at the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Twenty-fourth
Street in 1859. He designed the building and employed slave labor and
skilled European craftsmen. His wife, née Rebecca Ashton Stoddart, named
the new family residence Ashton Villa in memory of one of her ancestors,
Lt. Isaac Ashton, a Revolutionary War hero. The imposing three-story home
is in the Victorian Italianate style, distinguished by deep eaves with
carved supporting brackets. The home is administered by the Galveston
Historical Foundation and is listed in the National Register of Historic
Places.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- ASHTON VILLA
- GALVESTON HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
- BROWN, JAMES MOREAU
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- First Odd Fellows lodge chartered in Texas (1838)
- Texas enlistee dies heroically and is awarded Medal of Honor (1953)
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