Nickolas Clayton & Galveston’s Heritage
The Bishop’s Palace is an internationally known iconic eye catcher on Galveston’s Broadway Avenue. Built over the time period of 1887-1893 for lawyer Walter Gresham, it has been cited as one of the 100 most important buildings in America by the American Institute of Architects.
Nicholas Clayton, a self-taught architect, can be learned about in Texas Historian Jeff Carroll’s big book of little historical stories, “Being Texan.”
Carroll tells us that “the first thing he (Clayton) did when he stepped off the train in Galveston in December 1872, was buy two clocks and a ceramic Madonna and Child from a pawn shop on Market Street, met the Bishop, and Galveston was never the same again.”
Besides the beach and assorted fun-in-the-sun, what is it that makes Galveston distinctive? Along the streets are the finest examples of architecture in the United States. People literally come from all over the world just to tour the “Bishop’s Palace.” It is all the work of Clayton.
Though what is now the Bishop’s Palace was first built for Colonel Walter Gresham with Clayton as the architect. The Greshams formally opened the home Jan. 1, 1893. Thirty years later in 1923, the Galveston-Houston Diocese of the Catholic Church purchased the Gresham House for $40,500. It became the Bishop’s Place where the Most Reverend Christopher C. C. Byrne lived until his death in 1950.
Clayton’s first love was designing churches. Among those in Galveston are the Sacred Heart Church & Academy, St. Mary’s, Eaton Memorial Chapel, Grace Church, Trinity Episcopal, Temple B’Nai Israel, and so forth. Then there were schools, and next John Sealy Hospital and the Masonic Temple. His work reached as far as Columbus, Texas where he built Cattle Baron Bob Stafford’s home, bank and opera house that still stand off the courthouse square.
Clayton was born in Cork, Ireland in 1839. Following the death of his father about 1842 of the plague and hunger of the Potato Famine. Clayton and his mother soon came to the United States to join her brother in Cincinnati. Grown, he served in the U. S. Navy as a yeoman during the Civil War years of 1862-65. His military record shows he had worked in the building trades not only in Cincinnati, but Memphis, New Orleans, Louisville and St. Louis.
Clayton’s self-trained architectural talent did not extend to business acumen. A business plan approved to build a new Galveston County Courthouse in which he had posted an $80,000 bond went bad. The case stayed in court for a 10-year period. He lost the case, bankrupting him. Poor timing just before the 1900 hurricane, when he purchased 40 building sites, that were completely “washed” away.
Clayton died Dec. 9, 1916 at the age of 77, to be buried in a donated Calvary Catholic Cemetery plot by a long-time friend, Judge Joseph Franklin. Only a simple stone marks his grave. His ‘monument’ stands all over Galveston.
(Texas Historian Jeff Carroll often speaks at the Two Rivers Heritage Foundation’s weekly mixers. His “Being Texan” book is available at those times.)
(Written by Betty Dunn, Two Rivers Heritage Foundation.) Visit www.tworiversheritagefoundation.org for more information or to become a member).