Grand 1894 Opera House

Henry Greenwall raised $100,000 in 1894 and opened what became The Grand on January 3, 1895. The Romanesque Revival building on Post Office Street survived the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 — the deadliest natural disaster in American history — along with subsequent storms, a Vaudeville phase, and decades as a movie house before the Galveston County Cultural Arts Council bought it in 1974 and restored it to a working theatre. The Texas Legislature named it the Official Opera House of Texas in 1993. It seats 1,040 and still runs a full performance season.