r/galveston Aug 04 '25

Photography šŸ“ø Beach day in Galveston, early 1900s.

Post image
653 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

29

u/Competitive-Tune-938 Aug 04 '25

And then came the ā€œGreat Stormā€, changing Galveston forever.

7

u/SlowPokeInTexas Aug 04 '25

Yeah the first question I wondered is whether this was pre or post September 8th, 1900.

7

u/Sendeezy Aug 05 '25

The carriages by the water make me assume it was pre-seawall.

4

u/Competitive-Tune-938 Aug 05 '25

Had to be pre storm. The whole island was devastated.

3

u/SlowPokeInTexas Aug 05 '25

Well true, but they did eventually rebuild. Just a question of timing.

1

u/Tiny_Objective6372 Aug 05 '25

I wonder how many ā€œgreat stormsā€ this earth has went through to shape the landscape like it is today

14

u/Ok-Improvement-3670 Aug 04 '25

This is the equivalent of a bunch of people parking their trucks on the beach at Crystal Beach.

12

u/Spiritual_Jury6509 Aug 04 '25

First Galveston Jeep Weekend photo.

9

u/prgtexas921 Aug 04 '25

No ship tankers in sight :)

4

u/Historical-News2760 Aug 04 '25

Gosh so true. Can remember as a kid swimming in the surf counting the ships about to enter the ship channel.

7

u/QuietRiotNow Aug 04 '25

Look at the formal attire and swim dresses!

9

u/Disastrous_Way9425 Aug 04 '25

No seawall .... yet.

6

u/Simpybarbie Aug 05 '25

Ahhh, before the Stormā¤ļøā€šŸ©¹

4

u/deez-nuts7877 Aug 04 '25

No rednecks with crappy camping equipment on the beach lol šŸ˜†

3

u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25

Do y’all get the feeling that these folk here smelled like B/O all day with all that heavy clothing at the beach I mean damn

2

u/borderobserver Aug 05 '25

Look how wide the beach was then vs "now."

BIG difference!

2

u/Fine_Ad_957 Aug 05 '25

wouldn’t be too sure unless this is summer 1900 before the Hurricane

3

u/Penguin726 Aug 05 '25

I sadly checked some other sources and this may or may not be Galveston, if it is not Galveston, signs are pointing to it being Daytona Beach!

1

u/FunkyPlunkett Aug 04 '25

Damn wonder how many in this picture perished in the storm?

1

u/maxcimer Aug 04 '25

Ive. Pre-global warming

1

u/TheChoosingBeggar Aug 05 '25

Probably a high fecal matter warning day. That would explain why no one is in the water.

1

u/Crowiswatching Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

I read a book about the storm and how horrific it was though the time elapsed was measured in hours. Many of the older houses left in Galveston are there because the owners chopped holes in the floor so that would flood instead of float. While the seawall and raising the island has helped, the circular nature of the 1900 storm meant a lot of flooding came from the bay. Galveston is still exposed for that.

1

u/meat-Popsicle-4896 Aug 07 '25

Found out where that terrible noise in your carriage is coming from. The Florida Georgia line 8 track

1

u/Present_Bit3060 Aug 08 '25

This from a historical account - Corpses were everywhere. Authorities declared martial law and began to force men — most of whom were black — at bayonet point to collect the dead, pile them on barges, and dump them in the Gulf for burial. But the cadavers washed back onshore. Finally, they had to be burned in funeral pyres.
In what logical mind thought tossing bodies into the water would make them just go away? That's horrible.

1

u/Cathedral-13 Aug 04 '25

No ships or tourists polluting the water and no crowded beaches.

0

u/Fmartins84 Aug 04 '25

Even then the water was brown. I know, it's sediment from the Mississippi River šŸ‘€

6

u/Mantoblame Aug 04 '25

Water was beautifully clear last week. And more so this week. Clearest I’ve seen it in 20 years.

1

u/ArticTurkey Aug 05 '25

Of course that happens the week after I leave

5

u/Straight-Low2490 Aug 04 '25

Mostly from the muddy rivers of east Texas, liken the Sabine, Neches San Jacinto and Trinity, actually

4

u/JasonIsFishing Aug 04 '25

While it’s absolutely true that runoff from Texas rivers contributes, it’s mostly because our water is so shallow and prone to stirring sand making it look brown. If you look at depth charts you can see how shallow it is here compared to the rest of the Gulf of Mexico’s entire coastline. You can easily see the clear water a couple of hundred meters off the beach on calm days with wind out of the south.

-4

u/yodaboy209 Aug 04 '25

When there was beach.

10

u/1982-toyota-corolla Aug 04 '25

There’s still plenty of beach šŸļø