Inside the Incredible History of Galveston’s Tremont House

GALVESTON, Texas — Long before tourists checked into the Tremont House for a weekend on Galveston Island, the name was associated with presidents, generals, businessmen and some of the biggest personalities in Texas history.

Sam Houston spoke here.

Former President Ulysses S. Grant stayed here.

So did legendary Union General Philip Sheridan.

And on one memorable visit to Galveston, Grant and Sheridan were entertained at the Tremont as the city welcomed two of the most famous military figures in America.

But there’s a twist to the story.

The Tremont House standing in downtown Galveston today isn’t the same Tremont House they knew.

In fact, the history of the Tremont is really the story of three different hotels — and nearly two centuries of Galveston history.

The Tremont Begins in the Republic of Texas

The story begins in 1839.

Texas had defeated Mexico at San Jacinto only three years earlier and was still an independent republic.

Galveston was just beginning its transformation into the great port city it would eventually become.

That year, the first Tremont House opened.

Almost immediately, it became more than a hotel.

The Tremont became a gathering place where politics, business and Galveston’s emerging social scene intersected.

And one of the biggest names in Texas history soon appeared there.

Sam Houston Takes the Stage

In 1839, Sam Houston delivered an important political address from the Tremont House.

Houston was already a legend.

He had commanded the Texian army at the Battle of San Jacinto, defeating Santa Anna and securing Texas independence. He had served as the first elected president of the Republic of Texas and remained one of the most powerful political figures in the new nation.

Houston used his Galveston appearance to challenge the direction of the government under his political rival, President Mirabeau B. Lamar, including Lamar’s expensive military policies and approach toward Native Americans.

It’s difficult to imagine today just how young Galveston was when this happened.

There was no seawall.

There was no Victorian skyline.

There was no United States flag flying over Texas.

Texas was its own country.

And Sam Houston was addressing its citizens from the Tremont House.

Fire Destroys the First Tremont

The original Tremont survived through the Republic of Texas, annexation into the United States and the Civil War.

Then, in 1865, it was destroyed by fire.

The Tremont was gone.

But Galveston’s greatest period of prosperity was just beginning.

Cotton, shipping, banking and railroad development were transforming the island into one of the most important commercial centers in the South.

Galveston needed another grand hotel.

And it got one.

The Second Tremont Rises

A magnificent new Tremont House opened in 1872.

This was the Tremont remembered from Galveston’s great Victorian era — an imposing four-story hotel that became one of the city’s premier destinations.

Its halls welcomed politicians, businessmen, military officers and wealthy travelers arriving in one of Texas’ most prosperous cities.

Outside, Galveston was booming.

Ships crowded the waterfront.

Cotton flowed through the port.

The nearby Strand developed into a financial and commercial district so important that it became known as the “Wall Street of the Southwest.”

Inside the Tremont, deals were discussed, meals were served, drinks were poured and some of the most influential people passing through Texas crossed paths.

Then one of the most famous men in America came to Galveston.

Ulysses S. Grant Comes to Town

In March 1880, former President Ulysses S. Grant arrived in Galveston during the celebrated travels he undertook after leaving the White House.

Grant was no ordinary former president.

Less than two decades earlier, he had commanded the Union armies during the final and decisive years of the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox in 1865.

Grant subsequently served two terms as president of the United States.

Now he was coming to Texas.

And traveling with him was another giant of Civil War history:

General Philip H. Sheridan.

Sheridan had been one of Grant’s most trusted and aggressive commanders during the war and later rose to command the United States Army.

Galveston welcomed the famous visitors.

Their accommodations?

The Tremont House.

The Night Grant and Sheridan Partied at the Tremont

Grant and Sheridan weren’t simply given rooms and sent upstairs for the evening.

They were entertained.

Galveston’s leading citizens gathered around the distinguished visitors as drinking, conversation and celebration became part of the evening.

Imagine being inside the Tremont that night.

Two men who had helped destroy the Confederacy were drinking and socializing in Texas — a former Confederate state — only about 15 years after the Civil War ended.

Outside the hotel was a city transformed.

The devastated South was still recovering from the war, but Galveston had emerged as an extraordinary commercial powerhouse.

Bankers and cotton merchants were accumulating fortunes.

Railroads connected the port with the Texas interior.

Ships carried Texas products around the world.

The Strand was booming.

And inside one of the city’s grandest hotels sat Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan.

For one night, some of the biggest personalities from America’s recent past were partying in downtown Galveston.

The Tremont Becomes a Galveston Institution

During the late 19th century, the Tremont was much more than somewhere to spend the night.

Hotels of this era functioned as important social and business centers.

Politicians met supporters.

Businessmen discussed deals.

Travelers exchanged news.

Merchants met customers.

Residents gathered for dinners and celebrations.

The Tremont was one of the places to see and be seen in prosperous Galveston.

Then came the event that changed everything.

September 8, 1900

On September 8, 1900, a catastrophic hurricane struck Galveston.

Storm surge swept across the island.

Thousands of people were killed in what remains the deadliest natural disaster in United States history.

Entire neighborhoods were destroyed.

The Tremont survived.

But the Galveston that emerged from the storm was entering a different era.

The city rebuilt on an astonishing scale, constructing its seawall and physically raising large portions of the island.

Galveston survived.

Its position in Texas, however, gradually changed.

Houston grew rapidly, and development of the Houston Ship Channel helped shift the region’s commercial center toward the mainland.

The Tremont’s glory days began to fade.

The Famous Hotel Disappears

Eventually, the second Tremont closed.

In 1928, the grand old hotel was demolished.

The building where Grant and Sheridan had stayed was gone.

The place associated with Sam Houston had already disappeared decades earlier.

For more than half a century, the Tremont House survived primarily as a name from Galveston’s past.

Then Galveston did something it has become remarkably good at doing.

It brought its history back to life.

The Third Tremont House

The building visitors see today is historically significant in its own right.

Today’s Tremont House occupies the former Leon & H. Blum Building, a historic commercial property dating to Galveston’s great 19th-century business era.

During the preservation movement that helped rescue downtown Galveston’s historic architecture, the property was transformed into a hotel.

In 1985, the Tremont House returned.

It became the third incarnation of the famous Galveston hotel.

That distinction is important.

Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan did not sleep inside the building occupied by today’s Tremont House.

Sam Houston did not deliver his famous address from this structure.

Those events occurred at earlier Tremont Houses.

But today’s hotel carries forward the name and legacy of an institution whose history stretches back almost as far as Galveston itself.

Three Hotels. One Galveston Story.

Few names tell the story of Galveston as completely as the Tremont.

The first Tremont belonged to the Republic of Texas.

Sam Houston spoke there.

The second belonged to Galveston’s great Victorian age.

Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan stayed there.

It survived the 1900 hurricane.

Then the building disappeared as Galveston’s fortunes changed.

Decades later, preservationists brought the Tremont name back inside another survivor of the city’s great commercial era.

And today, visitors once again arrive beneath a canopy bearing the words:

THE TREMONT HOUSE.

History Is Still Checking In

Walk through those doors today and you’ll find a modern hotel.

But the name above them carries nearly two centuries of history.

It reaches back to a time when Texas was its own country.

It connects Galveston to Sam Houston and the earliest political battles of the Republic.

It connects the city to the Civil War through Grant and Sheridan.

It witnessed Galveston’s rise into one of America’s great port cities.

It survived the hurricane that nearly destroyed that city.

It disappeared.

And then it returned.

That’s what makes the Tremont House different from simply being an old hotel.

The Tremont didn’t just witness Galveston history. Its story follows the history of Galveston itself.