Artspace

National Hotel Artist Lofts

2221 Market Street
Galveston, Texas 77550

Opened 2004

Restoring a cultural centerpiece

Few buildings have a history as colorful as that of the National Hotel Artist Lofts. Built in 1870 as an opera house, it enjoyed a brief but glamorous reign as Galveston's cultural centerpiece. In 1895, a new owner substantially rebuilt it as an office building. Five years later, it survived the great hurricane of 1900, which levelled much of Galveston. It subsequently housed a bank, various stores and offices, and the National Hotel.

Developed at a cost of $3.3 million, this important Galveston landmark has now been reborn as the National Hotel Artist Lofts, a 28-unit live/work building that includes both affordable and market-rate housing as well as ground-floor commercial space. Notable features of the project include a public sitting area on each floor that doubles as gallery space for resident artists and an elevator that also serves the next-door Galveston County Historical Museum, which previously had no wheelchair-accessible entryway.