DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's the word and Duane's just the messenger — here's what it says about one building that's seen just about everything Galveston could throw at it. Now, before there was a Marine Building, before there was even a building at all, there was a man. A German immigrant named Samson Heidenheimer who — according to local tradition — started out walking the streets of Galveston selling goods off his back, before the Civil War had even begun.
You want to talk about humble beginnings, that's about as humble as it gets on an island city. Then the war came. And while wars are hard on most people, Samson Heidenheimer, by local tradition's telling, found a way to build something lucrative out of the chaos — dealing in cotton and blockade running.
That is not a quiet life. That is a man threading ships through a naval blockade and coming out the other side with money in his pocket. By 1876 he had enough to build.
Right there in Galveston, Samson and his brothers put up what would become this two-story Victorian-era structure, and they ran a wholesale grocery business out of it — under various names, the marker's careful to note — all the way until 1904. Samson himself passed in 1891, but the family operation kept right on going after him. Now here's where the building picks up its famous name.
In 1904 — the very year the family grocery trade moved on — Suderman and Dolson Stevedores arrived. A division of the Morgan Steamship Line. And from that point forward, folks knew the place as the Marine Building.
There's something fitting about a blockade runner's legacy ending up in the hands of a steamship company, even if the marker doesn't draw that line for us. The building passed to a New Orleans businessman — and then, in 1933, he lost it to a Houston bank. Just like that.
Then 1941 rolls around and a member of the Heidenheimer family bought the property back. It changed hands several more times in the years that followed. And through all of it — the cotton deals, the stevedores, the bank foreclosure, the revolving door of owners — the building itself just stood there.
Two stories. Italianate hood molds up on the second level, ogee arches running along the first story. Corbelled detail.
Exaggerated style elements pressed into stuccoed masonry. Victorian-era bones that refused to quit. In 1984 and 1985, the structure finally got the restoration it had been earning for over a century.
Samson Heidenheimer started as a street vendor. The building he raised in 1876 is still standing in Galveston today. Some things, if you build them right, just refuse to be lost.
What the marker says
Built in 1876 by German immigrant Samson Heidenheimer (d. 1891), this building has housed a number of wholesale and retail businesses. According to local tradition, Heidenheimer began business in Galveston prior to the Civil War as a street vendor, and during the war built up a lucrative business by dealing in cotton and blockade running. With his brothers, he opened a wholesale grocery business which operated under various names at this location until 1904. Suderman & Dolson Stevedores, a division of the Morgan Steamship Line, moved here in 1904, and during their occupancy the building was known as the Marine Building. The structure was sold to a New Orleans businessman, who lost it to a Houston bank in 1933. A member of the Heidenheimer family bought the property in 1941, and it changed hands several times in the succeeding years. An important commercial and historic landmark, the building underwent restoration in 1984-85. The two-story structure is of Victorian-era styling, with Italianate hood molds on the second level and ogee arches on the first story. Features include corbelled detail and exaggerated style elements incorporated into the stuccoed masonry. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1986