1895 Letitia Rosenberg Home For Women - Galveston, Texas
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English - August 30, 2021 01:00 - 1 minute - 1.39 MBHistory Society & Culture Places & Travel galveston texas history audio tour free island education texas history historic Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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Interested in information covered in this episode? Dive deeper into the links below! :
1895 Letitia Rosenberg Home For Women: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/letitia-rosenberg-womans-home
Silk Stocking Historic District: https://www.galvestontx.gov/648/Silk-Stocking
Photos of Grade raising and elevating the home: https://www.galvestonhistorycenter.org/research/buildings
Transcript:
The 1895 Letitia Rosenberg home for women. After Henry Rosenberg died in 1893, among the many gifts he left to the city of Galveston, the funds for building the Letitia Rosenberg home for women were one of the most paramount for the growing city at the time.
However, the founding of a woman's home in Galveston was not due to Henry. The initial idea for the home started years before the building we see today was erected. In November 1888, a group of charitable ladies met at Trinity Episcopal Church to begin forming a home for elderly women. These women assembled a female board of 17 directors and chose executive officers from several churches around the island.
Officially, beginning in 1889, the directors rented a house on 31st Street for $25 a month. Within a year, 23 elderly women lived there. Their expenses were paid by donations and subscriptions to the women who composed the board of directors. When Henry Rosenberg died in 1893, he left $30,000 to build and furnish the Victorian Gothic building, which still stands today.
The building was built in 1895 and dedicated in 1896 to Henry Rosenberg's first wife, Leticia. Henry Rosenberg saw his bequest as filling a pressing need in Galveston. Famed German architect Alfred Mueller designed this building. The home for women operated here until 1970 and shortly after became a private residence.
The building can be seen on the corner of Avenue O and Rosenberg Avenue. Impressively, his building was elevated during the grade raising after the 1900 storm, and the photos of this feat are just as impressive as elevating St. Patrick's Church. If you are anywhere near Pleasure Pier, walk down to the Silk Stocking District and check out the 1895 Letitia Rosenberg Home for Women, along with the other historic homes in the Silk