You'll Never Believe What's Hiding Inside The Walls Of This Abandoned Texas Mansion
By Kristen Lawrence|Updated on February 02, 2023(Originally published January 27, 2023)
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Kristen Lawrence
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Texas staff writer for Only in Your State, blogger for Power of Positivity, and freelance health, wellness, and travel writer. I spend any chance I get traveling, enjoying nature, trying out new recipes, and meditating. I love sharing smiles, good food, and great conversation :)
When you see an abandoned building in your town, you probably don’t even think twice about it. But what about an abandoned mansion with a rich, mysterious history? The abandoned Stewart Mansion in Galveston, Texas looks very eerie, intriguing, and yet still hauntingly beautiful despite its age. While there are reports that it has been demolished, with restorations underway, these may be mere rumors. Hopefully, you can still visit for yourself and uncover what secrets might lurk within the silent walls of the Stewart Mansion in Texas.
Stewart Mansion has had several owners over the course of its life, the first being George Sealy, Jr., who was among one of the most prominent and powerful families in Galveston in his time. He had the 8,200-square-foot Spanish colonial mansion built in 1926 and named it "Isla Ranch."
Later Sealy sold the property to Maco Stewart, founder of Stewart Title Co, in 1933 as a vacation resort home. Stewart then changed the name to Stewart Mansion. You can almost feel a sense of the home's original grandeur before it fell into disarray.
Stewart was another prominent businessman in Galveston, making his fortune off insurance, banking, and war. After purchasing the mansion, Stewart began to remodel and expand the property.
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A legend has been told that Stewart killed his wife and children and buried them inside the walls of the house, but the graves in the Stewart family cemetery seem to debunk this claim.
UTMB then converted the mansion into a convalescent home for ill, disabled, and crippled children. They maintained ownership of the property until 1968 when it was left to fall into a state of decay and abandonment.
The decrepit, abandoned Stewart Mansion is located on the same land where the Karankawa Indians once lived in the early 1800s.
Jean Lafitte, one of the most famous pirates in history, came to the island in 1817 to set up a base for his slave-trading business. He and other pirates fought off the Karankawa Indians in a three-day battle in 1821 known as the Battle of Three Trees. Armed with cannons and guns, the pirates killed most of the Karankawa tribe, who only had bows and arrows as weapons.
The caretakers of the mansion over the years have reported seeing apparitions of Native Americans and pirates, as well as hearing cannon fire, screams, and cries on the property. One thing is for certain: this isn't a place for the faint of heart to visit, especially at night.
One of the caretakers said he and his wife heard doors banging and other unexplained noises coming from inside the abandoned mansion in Texas at night, as well.
The Stewart Mansion Galveston was purchased by Lori and Todd Edwards, who own the nearby Waterman's restaurant. One has to wonder what would draw anyone to purchase such a rundown and eerie home.
While the abandoned Stewart Mansion currently lies in a state of disrepair, the murals of pirates on the walls remain virtually intact, for the time being.
In fact, visitors have claimed to see shadow people, and hear songs being played on the now broken, disheveled piano.
The Stewart Mansion might not look how it once did in its prime, but this mural certainly takes your imagination back to better days inside the mansion's walls.
This is the largest mural in the mansion and depicts pirates in a boat set for sailing. While beautiful, it certainly provokes a spooky and foreboding mood given the aggressive stances of the pirates.
Families once walked through these halls, sharing laughs and memories, but now we can only hypothesize the happenings from within the now-seemingly haunted Stewart Mansion.
What will be the future of the Stewart Mansion? Will it be repurposed into condominiums? Or into a resort as was originally planned? Will it be demolished? Perhaps only time will tell. Whatever its fate, we'll always have these photographs to preserve the memory of what once was.
Would you explore the Stewart Mansion in Texas if you had the chance? If you have explored the mansion before, please share your experiences and/or photos with us in the comments below!
If you’re looking for more opportunities to brush up with the paranormal, these 13 abandoned places in Texas each have sinister histories behind them.
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