Mature shade trees contribute to the appeal of the Hutchings Home, which Fred and Pat Burns purchased in 1996. Renovations restored the exterior to its 1890s look.
Photo:
Jack Thompson
Editor’s note: In the wake of Hurricane Ike, we have been assured that the Hutchings Home has weathered the storm (once again). While we are saddened by the devastation of Galveston Island and the surrounding area, we find inspiration more than ever in the preservation efforts of Fred and Pat Burns and all the responsible stewards of our historic architecture.
Once Fred Burns convinced his wife, Pat, to check out the house on Avenue O in Galveston, it didn’t take long for her to sense a project in the making. “We had driven by the house before,” she says. “It was a total mess. But Fred talked me into looking at it.”
A Caribbean festival was going on in the park next door, with a reggae band rocking at window-rattling levels. “It was thunderous,” says Pat. “We had to scream to be heard even when we were standing next to one another.” But as they worked their way through the overgrown gardens toward the decaying mansion, “I don’t think Fred even noticed the music,” says Pat. “That’s when I realized this was going to be our house.”
That same year, in 1996, the couple bought the house, built by retail and banking pioneer John L. Hutchings 140 years before. Since the death of Hutchings’ grandson, Sealy Hutchings, the home had been owned by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Toward the end of Sealy’s life in the family mansion, the house and grounds began to deteriorate.
What was the attraction for the new owners? Two things: A deepening appreciation for Galveston history and its surviving architecture and the idea that the house could be a gathering place for friends, children, and grandchildren.
Built in 1856 on five acres given as a wedding present, the Hutchings Home came into being in an era when Galveston was on its way to becoming one of the South’s busiest ports. Hutchings commissioned a Classical Revival-style mansion with two stories and a prominent second-floor gallery. An 1885 hurricane damaged the house, giving the prospering businessman the opportunity to rethink the design with local architect Nicholas J. Clayton. Clayton added a third story, replaced the second-floor gallery with a dramatic portico, and dressed the façade in stucco and Italianate detailing. The Hutchings Home went on to survive the hurricane of 1900, which still ranks as the most deadly in American history -- an estimated 8,000 people died in the storm -- and Hurricane Ike earlier this year.
