GALVESTON
It was big news last week when the Hotel Galvez got a new owner and a new name, but it's the new paint job that's raising the most eyebrows.
When hotelier Mark Wyant announced Wednesday he was closing on acquisition of the hotel and renaming it the Grand Galvez Resort & Spa, he said he was committed to respecting the historical design of the 1911 Spanish Colonial Revival hotel.
At the same time, people couldn't help but notice the beginnings of a pink paint job in a shade that to some people resembled a flamingo and, to others, a certain antacid elixir.
To even long-time Galvestonians, the color choice might seem to go against claims that Wyant was trying to maintain the building's historical accuracy.
But, it turns out the Galvez was pink in its early days and has gone through a few color changes throughout its history.
What's hard to determine is just how pink the pink was before it was changed.
In 1979, the hotel was nominated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. In the application, supporters wrote initially the hotel's walls had been painted pink, but were later painted white. When that happened isn't exactly clear.
Photographs and postcards in the archives of the Galveston & Texas History Center at the Rosenberg Library show the Galvez in all sorts of colors — from white to yellow to a deep red to, indeed, a pinkish hue.
Postcards aren't a reliable indicator of what the hotel looked like in reality, said Lauren Martino Henry, the center's special collections manager. She noted that one of the postcards showed the Galveston water as a bright blue that was "clearly enhanced."
For his part, Wyant said the pinks on the building haven't been finalized and he was still working to get the color to look like a "pink with a base of creamy yellow."
There may be ways to determine how close the final colors come to the original style, experts said.
Dwayne Jones, executive director of the Galveston Historical Foundation, said one hint to the color of the hotel might be found in other buildings. A home at the corner of 25th Street and Avenue O was designed by the same architectural firm as the hotel, Jones said.
Even today, that home has a pinkish hue.
There also are some well-known contemporary examples that could serve as inspiration for the Galvez, including possibly the most famous hotel in the country — the Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
The resort, which is owned by former President Donald Trump, was built in the 1920s with Spanish-style architecture. Not every picture of that resort shows it well, but in certain light, like when the sun is setting, it does look pretty pink.
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May 17, 2021 at 07:00AM
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