New Year's Day Open House

On January 1st GHF celebrates the New Year at Bishop’s Palace with free admission 1 pm-3 pm. Complimentary champagne will be served to attendees. The tradition of an open house at the property started in 1893. Every other year the Gresham family would welcome visitors for a New Year’s Day calling.

Bishop’s Palace, also known as the Walter and Josephine Gresham House, is one of the island’s best-known and most popular tourist attractions. Bishop’s Palace is recognized as one of the nation’s most important late 19th-century Victorian residences. Nicholas Clayton, Texas’ most accomplished architect of the period, designed the house for the Gresham family. In 1921, Galvestonians raised money to buy the house for the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese to make it the home of Bishop Byrne. GHF purchased the property in 2013 from the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese. The foundation is the third owner of the property and assumed management in 2007. It welcomes over 65,000 local, national and international visitors each year.