Renovations revive 114-year-old Grand Galvez, signaling new era

An over 100-year-old hotel referred to as the “Queen of the Gulf” has never had more of its original splendor than now thanks to its current ownership — so much so that it had Hollywood calling.

The 219-room Grand Galvez Resort, Autograph Collection in Galveston, Texas, an hour's drive southeast of Houston, originally opened as Hotel Galvez in June 1911. When Mark Wyant, a former airline pilot and Dallas-based businessman, acquired it in 2021, it was his mission to return the hotel to its original splendor.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I think I would get what I consider one of the nation's few left 'Grand Am' hotels, as I call them — there's just not that many left," Wyant said. "Unfortunately, some of them were built in an area that can no longer support them because the market went away. But that wasn't the case in Galveston, and so that was specifically why we targeted it."

Wyant — through his hotel ownership and operating company, Seawall Hospitality — had worked on a few historic restoration projects with The Saint Hotel New Orleans and The Saint Hotel Key West. But he originally got his start in hotels with two properties just down the seawall of the Galvez.

"I've always kind of had an attraction to Galveston, because of there's so much history there," he said. "There's so many things that have happened in Galveston. They're kind of unknown, really. It's kind of one of those hidden little destinations that people think they know and they don't."

Now, thanks to its revival, the Grand Galvez is attracting visitors who also appreciate the beach town's history, particularly bolstering the hotel's wedding and event business.

Seawall Hospitality bought the hotel for $50 million in 2021. Wyant, whose previous hotels were affiliated with Marriott International's Autograph Collection, brought in the soft brand, converting it from Wyndham and renaming it the Grand Galvez.

He then put another $50 million into the property in renovations over two years. Every room was renovated, Wyant said, and a lot of the work was done to bring back original designs and set the scene in the opulent roaring '20s.

"We wanted to dress the old girl up," Wyant said, explaining that the Galvez was overdue for an update. Wyant took the lead on the renovations, with hands-on help from both his wife and mother supporting the mission.

"The Galvez has lived through so many eras, and to me, my favorite era growing up has always been the roaring '20s and The Great Gatsby look," he said.

Wyant got to work, first searching for documentation on what the hotel looked like when it was opened. A major focal point of the Grand Galvez now is Peacock Alley, which previously had been covered up with walls and segmented into meeting rooms. Wyant said it was "more like an archeological dig" finding and restoring this part of the hotel.

"I think, realistically, that's the biggest change that the property internally had, to open up that area and put it back into its original state," he said.

When he acquired the property, Wyant brought in Darryl Hill, whom he had worked with on other Autograph hotels, to run the Galvez as general manager.

"Watching guests come in, their eyes just open — that wow factor — when they walk through, that never gets old, because what you've done is you've literally ... transported [them] back to the 1930s," Hill said, describing the decor, the ambiance and even the music setting this mood.

Four towers top the building's center, and at the hotel opening, large urns surrounded each of the towers. However, Wyant said that photos from the early 1930s no longer had the urns, so he assumed a storm knocked them down and no one bothered to replace them. Fortunately, Wyant and his crew found a lone urn on the roof and were able to replicate and reinstall the full set.

One of the biggest changes to the exterior — and one that was, at first, not a popular decision to locals, Wyant said — was the hotel's fresh coat of pink paint. Since all of the Galvez's original photos were in black and white, Wyant couldn't figure out what the exact original color of the hotel was. The Beverly Hills Hotel was born right around the same time, and Wyant said he decided to go with the same shade.

Last year, when Hurricane Beryl damaged the roof and a team went up to repair it, Wyant realized he had placed a good bet on that pink.

"We tore [the roof] back, we found the original front of the building with the original pink color on it, and it was almost an exact match to what we put on it," he said.

All in all, the renovations touched every part of the Galvez, and the hotel — and its guests — is all the better for it, Hill said.

“We had our fair share of challenges because we’re dealing with a building that’s from 1911,” Hill said. “To look around and see it come to fruition, it was like watching in slow motion a flower blossom.”

Not every part of the renovation process was exact to the original Galvez. Wyant wanted to bring in a major focal piece for the entrance of the hotel, and while the Galvez originally had simple flooring, other hotels from that era would have a large mosaic welcoming guests in. He tapped Dallas- and New Mexico-based artist Julie Richey to collaborate on the design that would feature oleander, a common flower in Galveston.

"The 'Queen of the Gulf' was the name given to the property — even back in the 1920s that was a very common name," Wyant said. "So, we thought we would incorporate that in [too]."

Wyant, passionate about the history of the hotel as well as Galveston as a whole, created a dedicated space with historic artifacts, including a 1915 Ford Roadster and, the newest addition, a 1910 Buick Model 10.

"They used to race these on the beach out in front of the Galvez many years ago. We found one of these old cars that would have been utilized like that," he said, adding that he restored the Roadster in Dallas and drove it himself down to Galveston.

The hall also has other items — dishware, photos and even 1920s-era rolling chairs that would transport people down the seawall.

The history of the hotel is its biggest feature, Hill said, but it's not its only amenity.

"We are in the 1930s but yet, with Wi-Fi, Pilates machines in the fitness center and all the modern amenities that a person could possibly desire," Hill said.

Still, it's a throughline in so much of what the hotel provides its guests, whether it's playing host to the third generation of weddings or providing elegant Sunday brunch and high tea, both of which Hill said are can't-miss offerings.

During the renovations, Hill and Wyant also modernized the hotel's spa and created the Founder's Bar, which features cocktails both old and new.

"We've kept a lot of the old fervor alive, but yet still offer the up-to-date, modern mixology that guests may want," Hill said.

In a testament to Wyant and his team's work restoring the Galvez, "1923," a prequel TV show to Paramount's "Yellowstone," filmed the second episode of its second season at the Grand Galvez and around Galveston. The episode features Spencer, played by Brandon Sklenar, encountering a crime boss on the island.

Wyant, who signed on as an extra with his wife and son, said he had a few conversations with the crew from the show over the years. The writers' strike delayed season two a little, but the show was finally able to film in August last year and aired March 2.

"They stayed with us and filmed several other scenes in Galveston, not just the Galvez," he said, pointing to scenes at Ashton Villa and the Galveston Railroad Museum, which houses a restored train station.

But at the Grand Galvez, the "1923" crew didn't have to set up a lot — the historic atmosphere was already there, Hill said, adding that "their setup time was so minimal, because we literally were the perfect template for them."

"I've been in hotels for some time. I've done several movie shoots, but this one in particular really stood out. And the reason it really stood out was the entire ambience of the crew that came in and their appreciation for the history of it all," Hill said.

Now, Hill said that two or three times a week "set-jetting" guests will come in inquiring about scenes from the show, and he's able to point them to the historic check-in desk the show left that's now on display.

Galveston is a town that almost ceased to exist, and the Grand Galvez has a starring role in the comeback story. The hurricane of 1900 — still regarded as the most deadly natural disaster in the U.S. — killed between 6,000 and 8,000 of the island's 38,000 inhabitants. Afterward, the city was rebuilt with a seawall and its elevation was raised to 17 feet.

This resiliency wasn't a given for Galveston, but locals wanted to avoid the fate of Indianola, a neighboring town that was walloped by two back-to-back storms just a few decades before and became a ghost town.

Part of Galveston's recovery mission was to reignite tourism, and to do that, the city needed a hotel. A group of wealthy Galvestonians pooled their resources to jump-start a city-wide effort to raise $500,000 — more than $17 million in today's money — to fund the hotel.

"If you dig into it, the Galvez was really a result of all of that upheaval, and it's really been kind of the flagship of the city ever since," Wyant said. "It's had its good times. It's had its bad times, but I like to think now it's back into the good times again and leading Galveston into a better, more prosperous future."

In this way, the history of the Galvez is linked with the history of Galveston, from serving as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's summer home in 1937 to becoming a wartime headquarters for the U.S. Coast Guard in the '40s.

"I'm a huge promoter of Galveston, because, again, I think it's a story not told," Wyant said.

According to CoStar data, the Galveston market has about 50 hotels open, and about a dozen more are in the pipeline, with half being upscale or upper upscale.

From Wyant's perspective, Galveston has a lot of promise, but he points to home-sharing apps taking up parts of the market share.

"[Galveston] is a market that is growing, but it's not growing exponentially by any means," he said. "It's kind of a hidden gem that people are not aware of. I think that with everybody's knowledge of it, maybe Galveston could enter a period of renaissance to take it away from just what everybody considers just a little beach town."

However, the Grand Galvez's renaissance is already here, Hill said.

“I think we’re going to have a phenomenal year,” he said. “We are, from an operational standpoint, [hosting] a lot more travelers, and that’s not to be taken lightly.”

A major opportunity for the Galvez is its wedding business. Hill said the hotel has as many weddings on the books by the end of the first quarter of 2025 than it did for all of 2024. The hotel has two ballrooms, an outside garden and beach access for weddings.

“We’re seeing a massive push. Now that we’ve done the renovation, now the recognition is here, now everyone understands what has taken place and what we’ve produced ... people are coming here to get married," Hill said.

Another revenue driver is customer loyalty, which Wyant said the hotel didn't have really until recently.

"Now I think we're developing customer bases [that] specifically want to come and be at the Galvez because of [its] historic nature, and want to see the renovations," Wyant said, "but also enjoy the feel of staying in the only historic property you know on the Gulf Coast.

"I expect a record season, I really do," he added. "I hope we give [the Grand Galvez] another lease of life, for another 100 years."

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