GALVESTON, Texas -- Oilman and real estate developer George Mitchell has purchased the historic Hotel Galvez, an 82-year-old historic landmark whose guests have included U.S. presidents and many celebrities.
President Franklin Roosevelt used Hotel Galvez as his 'summer White House' in May 1937 while on an extended fishing vaction.
The 228-room, six-story hotel was acquired by Eighteen Seventy Strand Corp, a company owned by Mitchell and his wife, Cynthia, from Aetna Life Insurance for an undisclosed sum.
Mitchell, who developed The Woodlands community north of Houston, has been involved in restoring a number of old buildings in the Strand section of Galveston.
Hotel Galvez, located on Galveston's seashore, is built in the Spanish Colonial architecture style.
President Lyndon Johnson also had stayed at the hotel. Other noted people who have patronized the hotel include Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Stewart.
The hotel, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was once known as the 'queen of the Gulf.'
It is named after the city's namesake, Bernardo de Galvez, who was the Spanish viceroy of Mexico in the 1700s. The facility also served as the headquarters of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1942 to 1944.
With the end of illegal gambling in the 1950s, the hotel fell on hard times and closed its doors in 1978.
It was reopened in 1980 when a group that included heart surgeon Denton Cooley and Houston businessman Archie Bennett Jr. bought it and spent millions renovating it.
Mitchell says Hotel Galvez will play a key role in making Galveston a more popular tourism destination in the 1990s.
'We want to bring life again to the Hotel Galvez and build a future for Galveston's beach front as remarkable as this historic hotel,' Mitchell said.
