DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. There's a building standing in Galveston that has lived more lives than most people ever get to dream about. It's called the Powhatan House, and if walls could talk, these particular walls would need about three days and a strong pot of coffee to get through everything they've seen.
Built in 1847 by a man named John Seabrook Sydnor — who, not for nothing, was serving as mayor of Galveston at the time, from 1846 to 1847 — the Powhatan House started its long, strange journey as an early Galveston hotel. Now, Sydnor didn't build just any building. He built in the Greek revival style, with Doric columns shipped all the way down from Maine.
Maine. Think about that for a second. Those columns made a journey of their own before the Powhatan House ever opened its doors to a single guest.
So right from the start, this place had a flair for the dramatic. A hotel. That's chapter one.
But a building with this much character was never going to stay in one line of work. Before long, the Powhatan House became an orphanage — a place of refuge for children who needed one. Then it reinvented itself again as a military academy.
Then a private residence. And then — and this is the part that makes you stop and stare — somebody looked at this 19th-century Greek revival landmark on the Gulf Coast and said, yes, this is exactly what we need for a motion picture set. And they were right.
The Powhatan House obliged. Every single one of those lives happened inside the same Doric columns, under the same roof that John Seabrook Sydnor put up back in 1847. Today the building serves as the Galveston Garden Center.
Hotel, orphanage, academy, home, film set, garden center. Some buildings just refuse to be finished.
What the marker says
Early Galveston hotel; built 1847 by John Seabrook Sydnor, Galveston mayor 1846-1847. Greek revival architecture; Doric columns from Maine. Has served as orphanage, military academy, residence, and set for a motion picture. Now Galveston Garden Center. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967