Galveston Speakeasy Cottage

05/01/2023

We are on this year’s tour! Come on down!

05/01/2023

Come on in!

04/15/2023

What a fun interview! Come on inside the Speakeasy!

12/27/2022

Come visit us. Wonderful story today in Houston Chronicle

For a decade, this historical cottage had been abandoned until Barbara Canetti and Carlos Rioson renovated it and turned it into a guesthouse.

12/27/2022

Come and visit. Wonderful story today Houston Chronicle

For a decade, this historical cottage had been abandoned until Barbara Canetti and Carlos Rioson renovated it and turned it into a guesthouse.

04/05/2021

This antique bottle from Forsgard, Waters & Co., Galveston, Texas, was found in this house inside the of the hallway wall during the 2019 restoration of the building.

It predates the building of the house, which was 1890.

A search of the 1888 Galveston directory indicates that James W. Forsgard was the bottler and agent of Moxie Nerve Food, a patented “medicine” sold across the U.S. and advertised “it would cure everything” from “softening of the brain” to “loss of manhood.” Beginning in 1884, it was carbonated and sold as a soft drink, advertised as giving the user “spunk.”

Forsgard took over the business after J.J. Schott sold his Moxie bottling business and bought back his drug store in 1887. Forsgard was in partnership with William Waters in at least part of 1887 but that partnership had dissolved by 1888. Forsgard probably had already ordered bottles with the Forsgard & Waters names and thus used them for the Moxie business. By 1889 it appears that he was out of the Moxie and bottling business.

This bottle is about six inches tall, has a metal clasp and is an extremely rare Galveston hutch soda bottle as well as a great piece of rare Moxie history.

03/18/2021

The outside gardens were growing so well until the February freeze. Slowly they are coming back. The outside raised garden was created after the restoration was completed. During construction, the entire yard was filled with debris and materials, leaving no room for plants or flowers. But once construction was complete, we reused 130-year-old pilings which we replaced from under the house to make the wall which holds up the raised garden.
A water system was installed, including using runoff from the roof into a pipe system below ground.
A variety of flowers (amaryllis, agapanthus, snap dragons and Ge**er daisies) along with three types of hibiscus and a honey suckle vine were planted.
An old, claw-footed tub was pulled from the basement, painted and filled with soil and a dozen amaryllis plants. A large purple Vitex (Texas Lilac) hangs along the back fence, dropping seeds and dozens of new plants are growing. A Peggy Martin rosebush – grown from cuttings rescued from New Orleans after the devastating Hurricane Katrina – wraps around a piece wrought iron sculpture made by Galveston artist Raini Cunningham.
After the yard was cleaned up, we found out we had a small (although battered) cement patio in the yard, where we put a small table, chairs and umbrella for outside, private gatherings.

02/14/2021

We created an interesting seating area in the back bedroom. The window seat is a unique addition to the house. It provides a bit of storage under the window, but it also gives the room an extra sitting area.
During the 2019 restoration of the house, the two bedroom closets were added. The space between them warranted a decorative touch. We had an old carved wood bed frame for a double bed which we were not going to use. We created the window seat with recycled wood from the house and topped it with the headboard of the bed frame, attached with decorative hinges. To give the seat a bit more ornamental look, we used the smaller foot board as the wall backing of the window seat.
The discarded cherry wood bed frame also had interesting posts. They were also recycled and used for other handmade pieces of furniture in the house.

02/06/2021

The Galveston Speakeasy was such a fun project. I will share with you each week some of the special things we did in this house to make it comfortable and fun for visitors.
First item: the walls. Most of the multi-colored walls and ceilings are original to this house, which was constructed in 1890 from remnants of other, older houses in Galveston. We preserved the wood by cleaning it, removing a million tacks and cheesecloth (used to hold up wall paper in the 1920s), caulked it to diminish breezes in the house and sealed it with three coats of a polyacrylic. Thanks to Scott Hansen at Antique Warehouse for helping where we needed replacements.

02/06/2021

Mardi Gras-lite happening this weekend and next weekend in Galveston. So many of the houses have been decorated for the annual celebration which was cancelled this year.

01/14/2021

After a year of activity at this vacation rental, we are finally setting up a page. We will be posting updates and stories about the house and neighborhood, so keep posted and "Like" us