1859 Ashton Villa

The first of Galveston's great Broadway mansions, this Italianate masterpiece was built in 1859 by wealthy businessman James Moreau Brown. During the Civil War, the home served as a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers, many of whom died of yellow fever along with doctors and nurses. The eccentric and wealthy Bettie Brown lived here until her death from Lou Gehrig's disease in 1920.

Ashton Villa, built in 1859 by hardware magnate James Moreau Brown, was the first of Galveston's great Broadway mansions and a symbol of antebellum prosperity. The three-story brick and cast-iron structure was one of the few homes to survive the Great Storm of 1900—the deadliest natural disaster in American history that killed 6,000 people.

During that catastrophic hurricane, the Browns employed an ingenious survival strategy: they opened the front door and allowed floodwaters to flow through the house and exit out the back, preventing the structure from being pushed off its foundation. One of the youngest Brown daughters sat on the main staircase while water rose to the 10th step, rushing through the home like a river.

The mansion's ghost is Miss Bettie Ashton Brown, the stunningly beautiful, golden-haired daughter of James Brown. Born in 1855, Bettie grew into a sophisticated woman with an independent spirit that scandalized proper society. She traveled alone to Morocco, Jerusalem, Egypt, China, and India. She smoked in public. At one social event, she appeared with kittens riding on the train of her dress. When James Brown died in 1895, he left Ashton Villa to Bettie, who lived there until her death in 1920.

Ashton Villa is sometimes called "the most haunted building in America," mostly due to Bettie's persistent presence. Her ghost has been seen standing in the Gold Room—the mansion's magnificent first-floor formal living room—standing at the top of the staircase, and playing the piano.

One tour guide witnessed the apparition of a blonde atop the second-floor landing, gowned in turquoise and holding an intricately detailed fan—one of Bettie's beloved possessions. A caretaker residing in the carriage house was awakened by piano music coming from the Gold Room. Expecting an intruder, he found instead the faint image of a woman in 19th-century attire at the piano—both the figure and music faded after a moment.

Foundation guides point to Miss Bettie's souvenir box from the Middle East, which mysteriously locks and unlocks on its own. No living person possesses a key. Staff have also found impressions on Bettie's bed as if someone had been sitting there.