A dusty blue, two-story Queen Anne house stands behind a white picket fence intertwined with roses on Market Street. It was built in 1893 by John Hanna (1863-1943), a prominent real estate broker on the island during its most lucrative and colorful years. Hanna, the youngest of eight children, moved from Ohio to Texas in 1881 and found work as a stenographer for the superintendent of the International-Great Northern Railroad in Palestine. 

 Two years later, he moved to Galveston, purchased a home on Winnie, and earned his living as a stenographer for Miller & English's importing and general commission merchant operation. 

 His mother, a widow named Edmonia Cook Hanna (1821-1899), moved with him, leaving her other grown children behind.

 Hanna began a new position as stenographer and correspondent for the successful Leon & H. Blum business in 1886, in the building now known as the Tremont House Hotel. He advanced quickly in the company, adding the duties of notary public and claims representative to his position within two years.

 He married Galvestonian Frances Virginia Griffin (1869-1954) in 1888, the same year Galveston’s new city hall and market were erected and designed by architect Alfred Muller.

 

 Frances, affectionately called “Frank” by family and friends, was the granddaughter of John Parker Davie (1816-1892), who arrived in Galveston in 1838. Davie worked his way up from being a tinsmith to one of the most respected businessmen on the island. He founded and owned the Washington Hotel, one block from the Leon & H. Blum business. 

 Davie also owned a brickyard at Cedar Bayou that supplied bricks for Galveston’s growing collection of architectural treasures. He was a stockholder of Galveston Wharf Company, helped organize Ladder Company No. 1, founded the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), and was a one-time mayor of the city.

 In 1891, when Hanna embarked on his new career as a real estate agent for Leon & H. Blum Land Company, he moved his family from their home on Winnie to a more spacious home at 1225 Postoffice Street. The Hanna family was growing, and they moved to the Postoffice home after their first two children were born. 

Hanna, whose local nickname was ‘the Deacon,’ built a new home for his family at 1417 Market in 1893. By then, he operated his own business as a real estate agent, notary public, and conveyancer (a legal expert specializing in buying and selling properties). 

 The two-story frame house featured inviting galleries on the first and second floors, partially sheltered with shingled overhangs and banisters. It also had a slate and metal roof and elegant double-entry doors. 

 The design included a kitchen, pantry, parlor, and formal living room divided by pocket doors. The home had elegant hardwoods, transomed doorways, two staircases (one interior and the other exterior), a Schonbek chandelier from Bohemia, four distinctive fireplaces with mirrors above, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and was powered by gas and electricity.

 Distinctive details, including an inverted curved canopy above the front window with a sunrise inset and fanned sunrays at the peak of a dormer window, added personality to its appearance. Two wooden cisterns stood behind the home.

 The Hannas had six children who were all entirely accomplished in their own right. John Griffin Hanna (1889-1948) became a famous naval architect. Parker Davie Hanna (1891-1981) became a rancher. Margaret Edmonia Hanna Kreisle (1894-1989) majored in piano at Mary Baldwin Seminary in Virginia and married a graduate of UTMB. James Scott Hanna (1898-1972) was an engineer who became an executive with Southwestern Bell Telephone. Virginia Holmes Hanna Strother (1901-1994) married Dr. Coble Duke Strother. Martha Hanna Henslee (1906-1990) was a teacher who eventually returned to her parents’ home.

 

 It was a full house, including grandmother Edmonia and live-in staff. The family kept dogs as beloved pets that appeared in Hanna’s photographs, including one wayward Collie that ended up in a classified ad that offered a reward for its return. 

 Through the years, Hanna occasionally partnered with other real estate agents. He branched out to offer fire and tornado insurance and was a secretary for the Hercules Oil Company office in Galveston. 

 He supported the community and was dedicated to the Young Men’s Christian Association. He was a one-time master of Harmony Lodge No. 6, president of the Galveston Rotary Club, charter member of the El Mina Shrine Temple, president of the Galveston Real Estate Board, and president of the Galveston Insurance Board. 

 But Hanna wasn’t too busy to enjoy himself. He was one of the leading members of the Galveston Quartet Society - one of the most respected male choruses of the south. He was also a member of the Histrionic Society, a dramatic group that performed plays usually to benefit local charities. His performances received high praise in the local press. 

 He was an avid photographer, and his work provides a peek into upper-middle-class life in Galveston, as several photos of his family and the home’s interior are part of the Galveston Texas History Center Collection.

 The home sustained minor damage during the 1900 Storm, and all family members were unharmed. A photo taken of the house by Hanna after the storm shows small downed trees in the yard as the only apparent damage.

 The women in the family often entertained friends and social groups at home, including church societies and the Sidney Sherman Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, of which Mrs. Hanna was president. 

 The family’s oldest son, John Griffin, became deaf after contracting scarlet fever in 1903. Soon afterward, he suffered an accident with a trolley because he could not hear its warning bell. His right foot was severed at the ankle, and he wore a prosthetic limb for the rest of his life.

 The misfortune did not keep him from pursuing his interests, and he built a canvas-covered canoe and a skiff from a kit, even modifying the design after it incurred damage. 

 He graduated from Ball High School in 1908, where many classmates learned sign language to communicate with him. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin to study electrical engineering.

 In 1909, the young man earned a patent for an automatic matchbox and another in 1911 for a device that controlled the effect of wind gusts on airplanes.

He stayed on his brother’s ranch in 1913 while he designed and built his own airplane. After that, he moved to New York to design hand-carved wooden airplane propellors for Glenn Curtis.

 John Griffin soon moved to Florida, where he became one of the nation’s most recognized sailboat designers, renowned for creating the Tahiti ketch in 1933. At least two of Hanna’s designs have circumnavigated the world twice.

 On October 17, 1938, the family celebrated John Sr. and Frances’ 50th wedding anniversary with a party for family and friends at the home on Market Street. 

When Hanna passed away in 1943 at age 79, he was the city's second oldest real estate dealer. After Frances passed away in 1954 at age 84, the house remained in the Hanna family for several more years before being occupied by a succession of other Galvestonians. 

 As we walk down Galveston streets filled with historic homes, we should remember the stories that took place within them.