Narrated tour, inside Bishop’s Palace. Galveston, Texas.

Welcome again, friends. This is Bobby. I am filming in Galveston, Texas, inside the Bishop's Palace. It's not really a palace. It's just a beautiful, grandiose house on four floors. And it also did not belong to the bishop, really. The bishop used to live in it later on, but it was built by Walter Gresham for him, his wife, and their five children who lived in the house. So what we have here is the main hallway. I just walked through those stained glass doors over there. It's December of 2022, so we have a big Christmas tree here. Stained glass window, they're original from 1892 when the house was completed. So turn of the century, mahogany everywhere, hardwood floors in every single room. Right over here, we have 54-foot ceiling all the way to the top over there. I'm going to give you guys a little tour. Over here to the right, the main dining hall. So I guess they needed a large space for both of them and for the five kids who lived in the house. Now, in total, they had eight kids, but three of them never got to live in the house. They were already grown when the house was finished. I want to mention that Walter Gresham made his money as a military attorney. He was a colonel for the US military, but also a colonel. I guess that combination made him a lot of money to build this house. He was originally from Virginia. Right over here, we have a little sunroom. I think this is my favorite in the entire house. This is not open to the public, the sunroom. So unfortunately, I cannot go in there, but I can film it from here, from this side. In the background, we have the Catholic church, and this is important historically for this house because the archdiocese of the Catholic church purchased the house from Walter's kids right after both him and his wife died in 1932. So because of the proximity, I guess, but also because of how beautiful the house is, the kids were happy to sell it. I'm quite sure that Walter and his wife did not turn and twist in their grave to have their house sold immediately after they died, kids in those days. Anyway, here we have a beautiful library, and this was also Walter's office. He wanted to have it here exposed to the breezes from the Gulf of Mexico. So the Gulf of Mexico is basically four, maybe five blocks away in that direction. So a beautiful space. Now, this one over here is marble that they imported from Algeria. Beautiful piece. Chandeliers everywhere, as you can see. The ceiling was painted by Walter's wife, Josephine. So all the ceilings, wherever they're painted, were painted by Josephine herself. Some angels there, painted by her. Stained glass windows, many places. I love these doors, how they can open and close, covering that big rotunda there. So leather-bound books here, as you can see. So to recap what we've seen so far, the main hallway, the main entrance right over here, the library and Walter's business office over here. Over here, we have the dining room. We have the sunroom here, way in the back. We have the kitchen, which I have not shown you just yet. For the late 1800s, this was not bad for a kitchen. This is a back staircase, not the main one. I didn't show you guys the basement, but it's not as magnificent. The basement has been turned into a little gift shop, so not that impressive. The main living room here, not a library, but a living room, and it's L-shaped. So there's a lot of living room there and a lot of living room here, all in one space, basically, L-shaped. Nice piano there, more marble. This one is from the United States, not from Algeria. That's me there in the back, in the mirror, and let's see. These are paintings of family members, not of Walter and Josephine themselves, but of their parents, and they hold floor-to-ceiling windows in the entire house. Beautiful walking spaces on the outside, as you can see, all around the house. Now, this ceiling here is not painted, but still quite beautiful, those geometric shapes. A little fireplace there. These windows are not quite floor-to-ceiling, but still quite tall. That's my car there, beat-up 21-year-old car. The white Ford sedan, just to do a little contrast with this beautiful building. Throw in an ugly car. All right, so, as I said, stained-glass window. Let's go upstairs. Look at the woodwork. So here, just a little nook, I guess, halfway through the staircase. You could stop here and make announcements to the people downstairs. More stained-glass window there. Now, this one is not lit up. They did not let any light come through, unfortunately, and this is the upper floor here. There's a tour going on there, so I'll go this way. This one here was the governess room, bedroom, or basically the nanny's bedroom. The nanny used to live here. She had the bathroom not attached to her bedroom, but close enough. Close enough. Now, there's a secret floor, I guess. Very, very small, low ceilings, but it's not open to the public. Oops, we've been there before. All right. This one here is their main bathroom, Walter's and Josephine's. So, back then, 1892, this was quite luxurious. Claw-footed bathtub, mosaic floors. This here was their main bedroom. Beautiful windows, again, top-to-ceiling windows. And I guess just a, I don't know, double-sized bed. That cannot be queen, so I guess they were short and not that large in those days. This bed here was added later on, but this had smaller beds. This was one of the kids' rooms at one point, when the house was finished, actually. It was one of the kids' rooms. More balconies, more walking space outside, as you all can see. Even the kids had a fireplace. I don't know if I mentioned this already. I've just learned that there were 11 fireplaces through the house. The kids didn't get a shower. They got a sink. That's it. In those days, that was good enough. I don't know where they would bathe, I guess, in the parents' shower. More hallway space here, slash living room space. This is another one of the kids' bedrooms, but the Bishop of the Catholic Church made it into a chapel later on. This was after 1932, when the church bought the building. This was not originally a chapel. All right, so the Bishop of the Catholic Church used to live in this bedroom here. Originally, it was one of the other kids' bedrooms, but the Bishop, of course, in the Catholic Church, you're not allowed to marry, so he only needed a small bed. Bishop Burns' bedroom. The view is outside. Very simple ceiling because this was originally just for one of the kids, and his bathroom over there. There's some people there, so I'm not going to talk to them. Very simple bathroom for the Bishop and, before that, for the kids. A little tanda. As I said, mahogany, mahogany wood everywhere. Look how beautiful this is. Anyway, I think I'll wrap it up here. I think I showed you guys everything that is open to the public. Oh, one more thing here. So they had a button before the age of telephones to announce what you needed, basically, to the servants and mailmen and stuff like that, people like that. Anyway, yep, I think that's pretty much it. Thank you all so much for watching. This is the Bishop's Palace in Galveston in Texas. Beautiful house, beautiful surroundings, beautiful neighborhood, and a lot of history. This is Bobby checking out. I'll see you guys next time.