The timing of his departure would, however, turn out to be very fortunate for him. He left on the first of September, and recalled being reluctant to do so. The Gulf breeze cooled the city at nightfall one of the most beautiful beaches in the world offered delightful surf-bathing and you saw everybody there in the afternoons, bathing, promenading or driving in carriages on the smooth, crisp sands… As to the city, it was lovely: its flat white buildings stood up from the water with the thin aspect of unreality its streets were lined with oleanders its lawns shaded by numerous palm trees its verandas deep and draped with vines.” “Those days it was the custom of gentlefolk from the up-country towns to summer at Galveston. Galveston’s location, on a barrier island with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Galveston Bay on the other side, made it a great tourist destination, too, with extensive beaches to enjoy. It was more prosperous than Houston, with one of the highest per capita income rates in the country, and its most prominent residents lived in fabulous mansions.
It was the first city in the state to get telephone lines and electric street lights, an opera house, an orphanage and much more. Known as the Queen City of the Gulf, it was the fourth biggest city in the state of Texas, a major centre of commerce and business, and one of America’s biggest cotton ports. It was no mere squall coming in from the Gulf, but a hurricane, and by the following day there would not be a single building in the city standing undamaged.Īt the very beginning of the twentieth century, Galveston was the place to be. In 1900, the first signs of an approaching storm brought crowds to the beach to watch the waves, but the holiday atmosphere would soon be over. A little breeze to stir the stuffy air, a little rain to wash the stickiness away. After a long, hot summer, a change in the weather can be welcome.
0 kommentar(er)
