Crystal Palace Bathhouse

Crystal Palace Bathhouse postcard, Seawall Specialty Co., Houston and Galveston, Texas [1920s]. SC227.613.3, Rosenberg Library.

By Casey Edward Greene, Rosenberg Scholar

On January 18, 1916, Galveston voters rejected Charter Amendment “O,” one of a series of fifteen local charter amendments, by a margin of 1,762 voters to 1,238. The Bathhouse Charter Amendment proposed “that no structures of floating materials shall be constructed or maintained outside of the seawall or extension thereof.” “Floating materials” was an oblique term for “wood.”

Amendment backers aimed to prohibit the construction of future wood bathhouses along Galveston’s beach. The city had experienced a strong Category 4 hurricane in August 1915. Waves pounded Murdoch’s and Breakers bathhouses to kindling and carried their timbers over the Seawall. Amendment supporters claimed that the debris destroyed the Crab Pavilion, a popular Seawall attraction which dated to 1905.

The Murdoch’s lost in the 1915 Storm was the third bathhouse of its name. Earlier Murdoch bathhouses, also made of wood, had fallen in the in the 1900 storm and a small hurricane in 1909. In May 1916, yet another Murdoch’s built of wood opened beachside at Tremont and Seawall Boulevard.

Murdoch’s Bathhouse postcard, Seawall Specialty Co., Galveston, Texas [1920s]. G-9257-FF3#14, Rosenberg Library.

Competition was in the form of a bathhouse built entirely of steel and concrete. Advertisements for the Crystal Joy Palace began appearing in the Galveston Daily News during the fall of 1915. This bathhouse was to be erected on the land side at Tremont and Seawall Boulevard. The Crystal Palace, as it became known not only served surf bathers, but, as noted in the accompanying brochure, also offered a heated indoor pool, restaurant, roof garden, and ice skating rink. The bathhouse claimed to introduce ice skating to Texas.

The Crystal Palace Bathhouse opened on July 1, 1916. It and Murdoch’s had long careers. The Crystal Palace was demolished in November 1941. True to its lineage, Murdoch’s was heavily damaged in Hurricane Carla in September 1961. Murdoch’s subsequently was razed to its pilings and replaced with another structure.