Galveston's flagship eyesore
Anyone who knows me even a smidgen has got to know, often painfully if I’m on a rant, that I am an architectural preservationist of the first order.
When it comes to old buildings, I teeter on the brink of fanaticism, a hard admission for me to make, since I count myself among those civilized folk of all stripes who rank fanatics of any skew way down there on the list with, well, bad and dangerous people.
And so you might find it odd, then, that I should be thrilled, giddy even, to learn today that the old 1960s-vintage Flagship Hotel, mortally wounded by Ike two years ago but even before that on a moldy downward spiral, will at last be razed, not refurbished as earlier planned.
A room with a view
But the twist here is that in its place, on this 1940s-era pier, is planned a reincarnation of its original historic use: as an amusement park—complete with food, fun, and a big Ferris wheel—over the sudsing surf of the Gulf of Mexico!
As it was fondly known to the old-timers around here and is soon to be known again, the Galveston Pleasure Pier is a breath of fresh, authentic, salty air.
Welcome back!
