The Historic Galveston Ghost Tour

The Historic Galveston Ghost Tour is a 90-minute evening walk run by Historic Galveston Ghost Tours, listed from $33 per person when we checked on August 2, 2026. Groups form up under the open-air gazebo at the corner of 24th and Sealy Avenue, across from the Rosenberg Library at 2310 Sealy, and the listing names six stops south of Broadway: 1859 Ashton Villa, the Adams League Mansion, Avenue M, 2213 Avenue K, The Mansard House and the Virginia Point Inn. None is flagged pass-by, but the inclusions cover a guide and parking only, so no interior access is established anywhere on the route. The group is capped at 35, the youngest booking band opens at age 4, and both wheelchair and stroller access are listed. It rates 4.8 from 1,754 reviews, the largest review base among the thirteen Galveston products we checked.

What the route covers

1859 Ashton Villa stands at 2328 Broadway at 24th. James Moreau Brown bought four lots on January 7, 1859 and designed the house himself; the Handbook of Texas records that he used slave labor and skilled European craftsmen. The line you will hear about the first brick house in Texas traces to a sentence written in 1965 rather than to a finding, and the federal file contradicts itself on the construction year three ways, so the January 1859 land purchase is the date worth carrying. Rebecca Ashton "Bettie" Brown died in the house on September 13, 1920, aged 65, although she was not born in it. The property went on the National Register on October 28, 1969, reference 69000204, under the name it carried then, El Mina Shrine Temple (nomination file via the Texas Historical Commission).

Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration has been held on the Ashton Villa lawn since 1979, and a statue of the reading was placed there in 2006 (Galveston Historical Foundation). That makes it a commemoration site, not the place the order was issued: General Order No. 3 came out of the Osterman Building at 22nd and Strand. One disagreement is still live, and flattening it would be dishonest. A 2014 Texas Historical Commission marker says Gordon Granger read the order at Ashton Villa; the historian Ed Cotham says no contemporaneous evidence has anyone reading it aloud anywhere. The Galveston Historical Foundation does not make the balcony claim, and neither does the federal file.

The Adams League Mansion is the Charles W. Adams House at 2314 Avenue M. The federal nomination for the Silk Stocking Residential Historic District calls it the earliest extant house in that district, built about 1860, and records that in 1921 it was turned to face Avenue M, having fronted Tremont (23rd) Street before that. It is a contributing building inside a district listing rather than an individually listed landmark, and it has run as an event venue and lodging since 2020. The Mansard House at 1101 23rd Street, at Avenue K, began as a boarding house built by George C. Smith, a telephone operator at the Galveston Daily News, and Louise Dowling Smith; the operator's own research post gives an opening of February 1, 1913. It reopened in 2024 as an adults-only twelve-room hotel, and it does not appear in the district's National Register nomination. The Virginia Point Inn is the Hawley House at 2327 Avenue K, entered in the same nomination's inventory as 1907/23, Prairie School, contributing. Two independent records agree on both dates and the style, which makes it the best-documented house on this route.

Two corrections travel with this route. These houses are not in the East End Historic District; four of the five sit in or on the edge of the Silk Stocking Residential Historic District. And the pianist Olga Samaroff did not live in the Adams League Mansion, which is 2314 Avenue M against her 2327. All three named houses are working lodging or event businesses with paying guests, so look from the sidewalk rather than try the doors.

2213 Avenue K is a private four-unit apartment building, and it is occupied. Robert Durst rented there in 2000 after going on the run, and in 2001 the body parts of a neighbor, Morris Black, began washing up in Galveston Bay. Durst was acquitted of murder in the Galveston case in 2003 and pleaded guilty to bail jumping and evidence tampering; he was sentenced to life in prison in Los Angeles in the killing of Susan Berman on October 14, 2021, and died on January 10, 2022 (AP via NPR). It is a sidewalk stop and nothing more. The sixth listed stop, Avenue M, we could not securely identify as a place at all, so we treat it as a walking segment and assert nothing about it.

Who it suits

Mixed-age evening walking, 90 minutes on flat residential streets south of Broadway, with the youngest booking band opening at 4 and a cap of 35, the second-largest among the thirteen Galveston products we checked. The listing carries a health restriction of its own, so read that line before you book.

• Choose it if you want the residential side of the island: six houses south of Broadway rather than the three-stop Strand route that four of this operator's other listings share.
• Choose it if review volume matters to you. At 1,754 reviews it carries the largest base among the thirteen Galveston products we checked, by a wide margin.
• Wheelchair and stroller access are listed for this tour, with surfaces and transportation both flagged accessible, checked August 1, 2026.
• Skip it if you want a cemetery route or a bar route, and skip it if the listing's no-heart-problems flag applies to anyone in your party.
• Skip it if you expect to go inside. Three of the named stops are working lodging or event businesses, and no interior access is listed anywhere on the route.

How it compares

Historic Galveston Ghost Tours sells seven Galveston products, and four of them walk the same three Strand stops. This one does not. It is the only one of the seven that stays residential, at $33 against the $31 that several siblings share, with six stops and a cap of 35 against the identical trio's three stops and cap of 25. The operator's two-hour combo walk pairs district material with that same Strand route at a 21 minimum. Ghost City Tours, a different company, runs chain walks in the same city from $29.99 to $34.99, and the largest review base among them was 200 at our August 2, 2026 check, so this listing carries more than eight times that. They sit side by side on our Galveston ghost tour hub and in our guide to the best haunted tours in Galveston.

Questions people ask

How long is it, and when does it run?

Ninety minutes, in the evening per the July 29, 2026 facts pass. No clock start time is published on the listing, so confirm your departure when you book.

What is the youngest age that can book?

Four. The listing's age bands read CHILD 4-12 and ADULT 13-99, so 4 is the youngest bookable age.

Where does it start?

At the corner of 24th and Sealy Avenue, under the open-air gazebo, across from 2310 Sealy Avenue. The listing says limited parking is provided and street parking is free.

Is it wheelchair accessible?

Yes, per the listing, with surfaces and transportation both listed as wheelchair accessible, and strollers are listed as accessible too. That was checked on August 1, 2026 and applies to this listing only.

Do you go inside the houses?

Nothing in the inclusions establishes interior access. What is listed is a guided walking tour plus parking. Three of the stops are working lodging or event businesses with paying guests, and 2213 Avenue K is an occupied private apartment building.

Can I cancel?

The listing carries free cancellation. A 24-hour window was recorded across all seven hub rows on July 29, 2026; confirm the exact window at booking.