Gresham Castle, Galveston, Texas

Gresham Castle is on Broadway at 14th St. in Galveston. Gresham was a railroad magnate and built this Victorian mansion in 1887 just as Galveston was peaking as the "Wall Street" of the south due to its preeminence as the largest port west of the Mississippi River. Likewise, Galveston was the wealthiest city west of the Mississippi from 1890 until the disastrous 1900 hurricane, which virtually wiped the city off the map. At that time, Houston to the north was in its infancy.