Garten-Verein

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Recently, I attended the annual meeting of the Galveston Historical Foundation. To my delight, it was held at incredibly beautiful Garten-Verein. Thus, for the first time, I was able to go inside this unique and historic public space - one I’ve been curious about for decades - and enjoy joining a group I’ve admired and appreciated for just as long.

Before that evening, I had already done a bit of research on Garten-Verein and, as expected, I discovered it has an interesting history.

In February 1876, a group of German businessmen organized the Galveston Garten-Verein (garden club) as a social club for family and friends. Only Germans or German speakers could hold stock in the club, but others could petition for membership. The group purchased the five-acre homestead of Robert Mills, a prominent Galveston businessman, and laid out the property as a park, with a clubhouse (Mills’ former home), lawns, gardens and walkways, bowling alleys, tennis courts, croquet grounds, playgrounds and a dancing pavilion.

After World War I, when overt Germanness had fallen out of fashion in America, a steady decline in membership in the Garten-Verein led the remaining members to sell the property to Stanley Kempner in 1923.. He donated it to the city as Kempner Park, dedicated to his parents, Eliza Seinsheimer and Harris Kempner.

The Garten-Verein’s tiered dancing pavilion, built in 1880, is the only one of the structures to survive the Great Storm of 1900 (though it required extensive rebuilding).

The Garten-Verein pavilion was restored in 1981 after a fire and in 1998, the entire Kempner Park and pavilion were refurbished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund.

Garten-Verein is managed by the Galveston Historical Foundation and is available as a rental for weddings and other special events.