Greenleve, Block & Co. Building

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Greenleve, Block and Co. Building in Galveston. Nicholas J.

Clayton was a Galveston architect with a gift for making brick and stone say something, and in 1882 he finished saying something considerable on this particular lot. The building he completed that year was for a wholesale dry goods firm, Greenleve, Block and Co., and it was the kind of structure that made people stop on the sidewalk and look up. Elaborate cast iron columns on the first floor.

Carved stone. A central three-part bay with pavilions flanking it on either side. And up top, a prominent cornice and a full fourth floor crowning the whole thing.

Clayton was turning out commercial buildings like this all across Galveston in the late nineteenth century, and this one stands as a prime example of just what that looked like. A series of dry goods firms kept the place busy, one after another, right up through 1919. That's when the building changed character entirely.

Flood and Calvert, ship chandlers, moved in that year, and they were not in a hurry to leave. They stayed until 1967. Nearly half a century of maritime commerce conducted under a roof that had originally sheltered bolts of fabric and wholesale merchandise.

The cornice and that fourth floor are gone now, details the building no longer wears. But the brick is still there, the carved stone is still there, and those cast iron columns are still holding up their end of the bargain, just as Nicholas J. Clayton designed them to do back in 1882.

What the marker says

This building, designed by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton, was completed in 1882 for the wholesale dry goods firm of Greenleve, Block & Co., and is indicative of the elaborate commercial buildings designed by Clayton during the late 19th century. A series of dry goods firms operated at the site until 1919. In that year, Flood and Calvert ship chandlers first occupied the building, and continued to do so until 1967. Originally topped with a prominent cornice and fourth floor, the brick and carved stone building features a central three-part bay flanked by pavilions, and elaborate first-floor cast iron columns. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 1964