Hutchings House
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Erected in 1856 for businessman John Henry Hutchings and his new wife Minnie (Knox), this structure was designed to resemble an Italian villa. It was damaged in an 1885 storm, and noted architect Nicholas Clayton did the extensive repair and renovation work. By his design the house became a blend of the Romanesque and Renaissance Revival styles. He replaced the south gallery with a single-story porch and the west porch with a two-story gabled portico. With the addition of a third floor and stucco applied to the house's brick walls, the building took on its historic appearance. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Erected in 1856 for businessman John Henry Hutchings and his bride Minnie Knox, this Galveston residence was first designed to resemble an Italian villa. After an 1885 storm damaged it, the celebrated architect Nicholas Clayton undertook extensive repairs, blending Romanesque and Renaissance Revival styles, adding a third floor, and stuccoing the brick walls into the form it wears today. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1962.
Why it matters
The house showcases the work of Nicholas Clayton, Galveston's premier Gilded Age architect, and the wealth of the island's merchant class at its commercial height.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Henry Hutchings
- · Nicholas Clayton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hutchings House
Galveston, TX
John Henry Hutchings came from North Carolina to Galveston in the 1840s and, with partners John Sealy and George Ball, built the banking and commission house of Ball, Hutchings & Co. On Avenue O he raised one of early Galveston's rare brick homes—complete with a schoolroom—using bricks fired on a Brazoria plantation. During the Civil War the firm ran cotton through Matamoros, Mexico, and Hutchings served the Confederate government; the storm-battered house, later expanded by architect Nicholas Clayton, stayed in the family into the twentieth century.
Galveston Garten Verein
Galveston, TX
From 1876 the Galveston Garten Verein was the German community's social heart — an octagonal dance pavilion set among tennis courts, bowling alleys, a bandstand, and fountains, and the site of the city's first underground electrical conduits. When the corporation dissolved, Stanley E. 'Pat' Kempner bought the grounds and gave them to Galveston as a public park.
George H. Nicholls
Galveston, TX
George H. Nicholls arrived in Galveston as a mariner and found his fortune in the warehouse trade, starting as the first employee of Geo. M. Steirer & Co. In 1888 he and a partner bought out their employer to form Wiley & Nicholls, a warehousing and freight-transfer firm at 19th Street and the Strand. As the business prospered, Nicholls built this home in 1893—the first house on 24th Street—living here until moving to a larger residence in 1899.
Hagemann-Cobb House
Galveston, TX
Galveston grocer John Hagemann and his wife Jerusha built this ornate Italianate–Queen Anne house in 1892, at the height of the island city's Gilded Age prosperity. In 1932 it passed to Thomas and Laura Ella Cobb; a city health inspector, Cobb headed the local Brewer's Union and was active in community politics. The home's wraparound veranda, curved metal roof, and Eastlake detailing make it a showpiece of late-Victorian Galveston architecture.