This Victorian Mansion Survived America’s Deadliest Hurricane & Became a Bishop’s Lavish Home in Galveston, TX

Bishop’s Palace, Galveston, Texas

Before Houston was big, Galveston was Texas’s richest city. The Bishop’s Palace is what’s left of that era – a Victorian castle built by a railroad tycoon, decorated with materials from around the world, and strong enough to shelter hundreds during the 1900 storm that nearly wiped the city off the map.

Here’s more of the story, plus how to visit it when you’re in the city.

This fortress survived America’s deadliest hurricane

Bishop’s Palace made it through the 1900 Galveston Hurricane that killed over 8,000 people because of its 23-inch thick stone walls. While 15-foot waves destroyed most of the city on September 8, 1900, only the basement flooded.

The Greshams took in hundreds of survivors during this terrible disaster. The mansion sits on Broadway Avenue about 15 feet above sea level, which helped protect it from the deadly storm surge.

It’s one of the few structures that remained standing when the hurricane left most of Galveston in ruins.

Walter Gresham brought stones from all over the world

Walter Gresham shipped in over 40 kinds of stone from around the globe while building his mansion between 1887 and 1893. You’ll see blue granite from Vermont in the entrance stairs, red sandstone from Colorado on the outside, and pink granite from Texas throughout the building.

The mansion showcases white marble from Vermont, limestone from various places, and native Texas granite that workers cut right on site.

All these different stones with varying textures and colors create the unique Victorian Chateauesque look that makes the palace stand out.

Faces and symbols are carved into the stone

Look closely at the mansion’s exterior and you’ll spot over 30 different carved faces including dragons, gargoyles, and mythical creatures. You can find animals, plants, and human faces carved into the Tudor arches and columns on the front porch.

Gresham added symbols connected to his Scottish background and Masonic ties throughout these decorative elements. Skilled European stone carvers came specifically to Galveston for this project and shaped the imported stones into elaborate designs while working right on the property.

Craftsmen built the Great Hall ceiling without nails

The Great Hall has a stunning 14-foot coffered ceiling made of Santo Domingo mahogany put together without a single nail. You’ll notice the detailed woodwork where all pieces join using mortise and tenon joints like medieval builders used.

European woodworkers spent seven months hand-carving these wooden panels on site as they finished the mansion in 1892. This ceiling is one of the best examples of late 1800s woodworking in America and cost about $4,500 back then, which would be around $140,000 today.

You can find hidden compartments throughout the house

The mansion has several secret hiding spots scattered across its 19,082 square feet. If you know which carved piece to press, you can access a hidden safe behind a movable panel in Walter Gresham’s walnut-lined library.

The built-in cabinets on the first and second floors contain at least seven concealed drawers designed for valuable papers and family treasures. Gresham added these secret storage areas partly for security and partly because hidden compartments were fashionable features in fancy Victorian homes.

The corner tower gives the best views in Galveston

A striking octagonal tower rises 40 feet high on the southeast corner of the mansion. When you climb the spiral staircase inside, you’ll get the best views in Galveston through windows on all eight sides.

This tower has five unique stained glass windows on different levels, each with special Victorian designs and symbols. The Gresham kids used this tower as both a play area and a lookout spot to watch ships coming into Galveston’s busy harbor when the city was known as ‘The Wall Street of the South.’

The price tag would shock you even today

Gresham spent about $250,000 on his mansion between 1887 and 1893, which would be around $7.7 million now. You can see where the money went in the 19,082 square feet of living space spread across four floors on a fairly small piece of land.

As a Civil War veteran, railroad businessman, and Texas congressman, Gresham wanted to leave his mark with this architectural masterpiece. Famous architect Nicholas Clayton took four years to finish the building, making it the priciest home built in Galveston during the city’s Victorian construction boom.

Parties here were the talk of the town

Before selling to the Catholic Church in 1923, the Greshams threw amazing parties in their mansion. You can stand in the same Great Hall where Galveston’s elite danced while orchestras played from the grand staircase.

Their yearly Christmas ball featured a 20-foot tree with imported ornaments and hundreds of candles lighting up the entrance hall. The mansion’s new electric lights, installed when electricity was still rare, let the Greshams host evening gatherings that would last until dawn, with up to 300 guests moving through the different reception rooms.

The Catholic Church turned a bedroom into a chapel

When the Catholic Diocese of Galveston bought the mansion in 1923 for just $40,500, they made it the home for Bishop Christopher Byrne. You can visit the chapel they created in what used to be the bedroom of Josephine Gresham, the family’s oldest daughter.

They added religious stained glass windows and painted a fresco of the four gospel writers on the chapel ceiling. The Church owned the property for 90 years until 2013, when they sold it to the Galveston Historical Foundation for $3 million.

The plumbing was way ahead of its time

This mansion had an advanced plumbing system that was extremely unusual for homes in the 1890s. You’ll find indoor bathrooms with hot, cold, and rainwater taps on multiple floors throughout the house.

The property included a 3,000-gallon cistern system that collected rainwater from the roof through copper gutters, filtered it, and sent it to different areas of the house.

This self-contained water system proved incredibly valuable after the 1900 hurricane when city utilities didn’t work for more than two weeks.

Each floor has a different design style

As you move up through the mansion’s four levels, you’ll notice the architectural styles change. The exterior and first floor show Victorian elements, while the second-floor public rooms have Moorish and Byzantine influences.

The third-floor family spaces feature simpler Greek Revival designs with less decoration. This intentional shift from formal to casual styles was a special touch from architect Nicholas Clayton’s creative approach to home design, reflecting how different parts of the home were used in daily life.

Bronze dragons light your way up the stairs

The grand staircase features bronze dragon posts that cost $1,600 each when installed in 1892. You can touch these detailed sculptures that have guided people up the stairs for over 130 years.

The dragons hold original gas-electric light fixtures in their mouths, made by Cornelius & Sons of Philadelphia, the top lighting company of that time. These bronze sculptures were cast in France using a special method and shipped to Galveston just for the Gresham home, arriving only six weeks before the family moved in.

The stained glass changes color throughout the day

In the Great Hall, you’ll find rare stained glass windows that change colors. As you watch throughout the day, the glass shifts from blue to purple to red depending on the sunlight’s angle.

German craftsmen made these panels using selenium and gold compounds mixed into melted glass with a technique called ‘Tiffany-style’ dichroic glass.

The mansion has 32 stained glass windows throughout its four levels, with the most elaborate ones in the main stairwell that cost more than a typical Galveston home during the 1890s.

Visiting Bishop’s Palace

You’ll find Bishop’s Palace at 1402 Broadway Avenue in Galveston. Tours run daily from 10am to 5pm, but you need to arrive by 4pm for the last entry.

Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for kids ages 6-18 as of 2025. If you want to see more of the mansion, special Basement to Attic Tours happen on select Saturdays for $35 per person, letting you into areas not on regular tours.

You can buy combined tickets with the Moody Mansion as part of the ‘Broadway Beauties’ package.