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| Galvez Hotel - Galveston, TX
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 The
Tremont Houston located on Ship Mechanics Blvd. in the center of the
Galveston Island historic district is the third hotel to bear the
Tremont name. The first Tremont Houston located on Postoffice
Street and Tremont was built by the McKinney and Williams firm in
1839. The hotel was two stories tall, with long galleries on both
floors extending the length of the east and not facades. It played
host to a grand call in honor of the battle of San Jacinto (the last
battle for Texas Independence from Mexico) on April 19, 1839. The ball
officially marked the opening of the hotel and tickets were sold for
an astounding $50 in Texas currency or $25 gold reflecting the
struggling and unstable new republic that was still not part of the
United States. Some 7 years later, Texas officially joined the United
States on February 19, 1846.
On April 19, 1861
General Sam Houston made his last public speech from the hotel's north
gallery warning a hostile crowd of the horrors of civil war and
predicting that "fire and rivers of blood" would result from the
South's efforts to secede from the Union. A year later Texas Governor
Francis R. Lubbock spoke from the
East gallery of the hotel advising citizens to lay waste to Galveston
with the exception of fortifications sot hat when the "vandal hordes"
(union soldiers) arrived they would find neither potable water or
shelter. That same year the hotel
was occupied by Union soldiers during one of the many times Galveston
Island exchanged hands in the midst of civil war and a fire destroyed
the building.
 In
1871 a group of Galveston citizens created The Galveston Hotel Company
and began plans for a second
Tremont House that would rival the first. The group sought to build a
hotel that would preserve the grandeur of the original hotel which had
made it famous through out the state and country. The new hotel was
built on half a block worth of land bound by Tremont, Church, and 24th
Street. Architect Nicholas J. Clayton came to Galveston to
simultaneously supervise the construction of the new Tremont House and
the Presbyterian Church. The second Tremont Houston opened February
1872.
The second Tremont House
was host to many celebrity guest including United States Presidents
Rutherford Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin
Harrison, James Garfield, and Chester Arthur and other luminaries
including General Sam Houston, Edwin Booth, Buffalo Bill Cody, Anna
Pavlova, Clara Barton, and Stephen Crane.
At a banquet honoring
former President Ulysses S. Grant in 1880 union General Phil Sheridan,
mellowed by good liquor and southern hospitality arose an apologized
for his famous remark that if he owned Hell and half of Texas, he
would rent out Texas and live in Hell.
 During
the storm of 1900 hundreds took refuge in the Tremont House. Clara
Barton, organizer of the American Red Cross stayed there when she came
to Galveston after the storm to assist disaster victims. On November
1, 1928 the hotel was closed, its days of glory over it was in serious
disrepair, and demolition started on December 11, 1928.
The current Tremont
House is a worthy successor to these legendary hotels. The third
Tremont was built in the mid 1980s in the former Leon & H. Blum Co.
Building. The building served as the headquarters for the leading
Galveston dry goods importer for over 20 years. The company also had
offices in Boston, New York, and Paris,
France. The depression of the 1890s severely affected the business of
Leon & H. Blum Co. and in 1896 the company dissolved. Since that time
the building has served as a Mistrot & Bros. large department store
until 1917. Then after sitting vacant for many years the building was
taken over by the Galveston Tribune. To read the full history of the
building you can click on the historical marker pictured at right.
The Tremont House of
today is a gorgeous 119 room complex that takes up an entire block and
half a black across the street. The elegant hotel sports Victorian era
style guest suites with white rod iron beds, luxury bed linen, 15 feet
high vaulted ceilings, hard wood floors, and windows in every guest
room. The decor is delightful and sure to please anyone that has the
pleasure of staying in this quaint little hotel.
Haunted History
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The Civil War
Solider
"The
Civil War Solider" ghost is probably the best known at Tremont
House. This ghost is said to haunt the first floor lobby, bar,
dinning, and office areas of Tremont House. This ghost has been
spotted by both staff and guest over the past 20 years the Tremont
House has had its doors open for business.
Normally seen or
heard marching back and forth up and down the length of the long
hallway that makes up the front lobby area in front of the
elevator shafts, down past the front desk, back towards the office
areas of the Hotel Staff. Front Desk Clerks have heard the click
click click of boots on the hard marble floor, come out of the
backroom, only to find the lobby empty and no one standing at the
front desk.
Could the solider be
watching the front doors of Tremont House? Waiting on Union
soldiers to invade the island and standing guard against that
possible invasion? |
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(Prop Picture not actually from
the Tremont Hotel) |
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The Lucky Man
The 4th floor is
said to have been where a viscous Victorian era murder occurred.
After having some luck gambling a business man staying at the
Tremont House was returning to his room when he was ambushed and
robbed in the 4th floor hallway. Our team is still working on
verifying this story by searching old newspaper articles from
sometime after the closing of Leon & H. Blum Co. or Mistrot
& Bros. Department store when it is rumored the Tremont House was
formerly the Belmont hotel. We've yet to confirm this rumor
however when we do you will be the first to know. In the meantime
we though the rumor well worth posting since we did get this orb
in the supposedly haunted hallway. |
| 4th Floor Haunted Hallway -
Click Picture for Larger View |
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Jimmy
"Jimmy" is said to
be a street boy that was hit by a car in front of the old Leon &
H. Blum Co. Building in the late 1800s. Now Jimmy can be found
both inside Tremont House in the lobby area playing with bottles
and glasses on the bar or he can be found outside the hotel. In
the alley directly behind the Tremont is the best place to find
Jimmy it is said. And we believe this image we captured is of
Jimmy. The original manager of the hotel is said to have given
this young street urchin his name of Jimmy. The manager was fond
of Raymond E. Feist novels - naming the ghost after Jimmy the Hand
a beloved character from Feist's novels and the main dinning salon
The Merchant Prince after the title of one of Feist's novels.
Click on
the picture to enlarge
Click to
see the retouched photograph
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Jimmy - Behind the Tremont
House Hotel - Click on Picture to Enlarge |
Our Experiences
The Haunted Galveston
team did a back to back investigation spending the first night at the
Galvez and the second night at the Tremont. We don't suggest that you
do this - after spending the entire night investigating at the Galvez
we were not prepared for the second night at the Tremont. We were
exhausted in fact, and if you plan on conducting a true investigation
you must be on top of your game.
We spent a great deal of
time inside of the hotel, walking the hallways, taking photographs of
the lobby, dinning room, different floors, elevator, and bar area. Our
team kept coming up with absolutely nothing - we would fill our
cameras up with photographs, download them onto the computer, and find
nothing to show for our efforts except gorgeous photographs of the
hotel.
We finally did get an
orb on the reportedly haunted 5th floor but that was our only sign of
any kind of paranormal activity while inside of the hotel. Finally
giving up on finding anything in the hotel itself we moved our
investigation to the street, walking around the hotel down along the
front of the building to Kemper, and then down into the back alley
behind the Tremont. We took several pictures around the hotel and
finally we did get what we all believe to be an apparition of Jimmy.
(Read more about Jimmy below)
The only really strong
feeling we received as a whole was from the bar area inside the hotel
and the haunted 5th floor. Upon checking in we requested the haunted
room and the front desk clerk gave us room #219 saying that guest
often report that after staying in that room their clothing, shoes,
and other personal items can be found laying in the floor scatter as
if they had been gone through over night. No one knows why the room is
said to be haunted but former paranormal investigators have said the
room is where the office once was located when the building was the
Leon & H. Blum Co. Could a disgruntled employee still be looking for
something? Or is Leon Blum still searching through his inventory? |
