"Open Gates" (Galveston, Texas)

 conference centre, mansion / manor house / villa

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Built for Galveston merchant, banker and philanthropist George Sealy and his wife, Magnolia Willis Sealy, the home known as Open Gates was designed by Stanford White of the New York Architectural firm McKim, Mead & White and is thought to be White’s only design in this region. Construction of the neo-Renaissance mansion took from 1887 to 1889, and was supervised by Galveston architect Nicholas Clayton, whose designs of the time included Old Red, the original John Sealy Hospital and the carriage house for Open Gates.

The home was a center of commercial and social life in Galveston for many years, and its elegant furnishings and gardens were enjoyed by a number of notables who visited the family of George Sealy, the younger brother of John Sealy. The house was used as a refuge during the 1900 hurricane that is still considered among the nation’s worst natural disasters. Despite 15 feet of water in the basement, Open Gates is thought to have provided emergency shelter for as many as 400 people during the peak of the storm. In 1979, the Sealy family gave the structure to University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Today, a variety of meetings, seminars and receptions, including teleconferences, take place at the Open Gates Conference Center.
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