Bishop's Palace (Gresham's Castle)

Built between 1887 and 1892 for Colonel Walter Gresham — attorney, entrepreneur, Texas legislator — the Châteauesque mansion at 1402 Broadway was designed by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton using Texas granite, white limestone, and red sandstone. When the 1900 hurricane killed more than 6,000 people and leveled much of the city, the building took only minor basement flooding. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston bought it in 1923; the Galveston Historical Foundation acquired it in 1963 and runs it today as a house museum open to the public.