DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker outside the Moody Home tells it, and I'll do my best by it. Around 1894, W. L.
Moody Jr. built himself a house in Galveston. Now, you could say he built a house the way some men build a house — but that wouldn't be quite right. What Moody built was a statement.
The man was a prominent financier and philanthropist, the kind of figure whose name got attached to things that lasted, like the Moody Foundation he established. And the home he put up reflected every bit of that ambition. Late Victorian architecture, which was already a mouthful of elegance, but the marker notes something that stops you cold: this place is said to have been the first Texas residence ever built on a steel frame.
The first. In the whole state. So while other Texans were hammering wood and stacking stone, Moody was raising walls on steel.
That's not a detail you just walk past. Inside, the home kept right on making its case. Magnificent stained glass windows caught the Gulf Coast light and threw it around in ways that plain glass simply refuses to do.
Ornate ceilings looked down on whoever was lucky enough to stand beneath them. And the woodwork — rare, handcarved woodwork — the kind of craft that takes patience most people don't have and skill most people can't buy. For many years, this was where W.
L. Moody Jr. lived. And the marker is careful to tell you one more thing about this place: it was famed for its hospitality.
A large, handsome home that opened itself to people. All that steel and stained glass and carved wood, and still — the thing it got remembered for was the welcome inside. That's a legacy worth a long drive to see.
What the marker says
Family residence, W. L. Moody, Jr. built about 1894, and for many years home of Mr. Moody, prominent financier and philanthropist who established the Moody Foundation. Late Victorian architecture said to have been first Texas residence built on steel frame. Has magnificent stained glass windows, ornate ceilings, rare handcarved woodwork. A large handsome home, famed for its hospitality. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967