The Lost Bayou Historic District - Galveston, Texas
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English - September 16, 2021 03:00 - 2 minutes - 1.66 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!
San Jacinto and Lost Bayou: http://www.sanjacneighborhoodassoc.org/Lost_Bayou_Historic_Dist.html
Lost Bayou: https://www.galvestontx.gov/634/Lost-Bayou
Transcript:
The Lost Bayou Historic District is one of the significant historic districts on the island on the National Register of Historic places. Much of the district is located south of Broadway, across from the East End Historic District.
This neighborhood sits where a small bayou or lake connected to the Gulf once sat. The district extends from 16th to 21st Street between Broadway and N 1/2. The city of Galveston was officially founded in 1839, and most of the inhabitants live near the downtown district. The rest of the island was Barron, with low elevation, and had many small bayous and inlets of water on both the bay and the beach sides, stretching across the island.
Much of the area between the Gulf and Avenue L and between 20th and 23rd Street was covered by a body of water known as Hitchcock's Bayou. Before the grade raising of the island after the 1900 storm, many homes and businesses were built around Hitchcock's Bayou. The Bayou was even the preferred water source for the military service camels that resided on the island in the 1850s.
The service Camel's Corral was directly behind where the Brian Museum sits today. Much of the area east of the Bayou was devastated by the great fire of 1885. This fire started near 16th and Strand and extended to the Gulf of Mexico, destroying many homes and structures adjacent to Hitchcock's Bayou.
Hitchcock's Bayou became lost, Once the grade raising of the island was complete. The elevation of the inhabited part of the island had increased, and the Bayou was filled with dredge mud. Once this body of water had been filled in, more lots were available for the neighborhood to expand. The lost Bayou neighborhood was soon built on top of the old water source.
It was developed initially as a working-class community with a few beautiful Victorian gems sprinkled around the area. If you are in the Lost Bayou District, make sur