A Blast from the Past

Something to Sing About

The Grand 1894 Opera House continues to draw the best talent from around the world, just like it did a century ago. by adam pitluk

there’s something romantic about a building that has stood in the same spot and has weathered so much, well, weather for almost 130 years. That romanticism is heightened only by the consideration that one person has been responsible for the caretaking and curating of that building for more than a third of its life.

As partnerships go, Maureen Patton, executive director of The Grand 1894 Opera House, signed an implied contract with the people of Galveston 40 years ago when she promised to help enrich the cultural life of the Gulf Coast region. Part of that promise was to not only present musical and theatrical acts by the most noteworthy artists, but to preserve the bones of the building that housed them.

“So much of what The Grand is remains the same as it was 127 years ago,” Patton says. “It was built as a live performance theater, and that’s what it is today.”

The main changes are in the way The Grand does business. Gone is the ticket case with the racks of hard tickets available for purchase before the show (although in a nod to nostalgia, season ticket holders still get hard tickets mailed to them). Implemented is a completely digitized ticketing scheme, as well as an alert notification system over text that lets patrons know if a show is going to be postponed or canceled because of inclement weather or road conditions. Of course, not everyone was on board at the onset with a technological retrofit, as a very appropriate concern was that The Grand would lose its yesteryear appeal.

“I remember saying to my board, ‘I want to be sure that everybody understands that once we start with technology, there’s no stopping with technology,’” Patton recalls. “But I believed it would drive us and make us more efficient.

Perhaps the two best measures of Patton’s stewardship of The Grand occurred during two very different catastrophes. The first was Hurricane Ike in 2008. The theater sustained all kinds of structural and cosmetic damage, and the orchestra pit and all the seats up to row L were completely under water. In all, Ike caused more than $6.5 million in damages. The second was COVID-19, which completely shut down operations for 18 months and prompted Patton to upgrade the duct system of the theater to prevent the spread of the virus. In both cases, and in true learning-from-the-past fashion, Patton took a page from the history book on how to fix The Grand in the face of a calamity.

After the great hurricane of 1900, The Grand was absolutely devastated, as was most of the Island. Not only did the former caretakers and city officials feel that a repaired theater would signal strength and community among Islanders, but it would also serve the practical purpose of hosting meetings and planning sessions for other Island reconstruction arrangements. Even in a more primitive time of construction, the theater was repaired in 13 months.

More than a hundred years later, Patton remembers the contractors asking her what year she wanted The Grand to be up and running after Hurricane Ike. Her reply: “We need to open our doors in no more than 13 months.”

And that’s what she did.

“This theater is a survivor,” she says. “We’re going to do what we’ve always done, and we’re going to survive.”

Here’s to another 40 years at the helm for Maureen Patton, and to another 127 years of splendor for The Grand 1894 Opera House. For a list of shows and ticket information,

visit thegrand.com.

The Grand 1894 Opera House entrance circa 1915 (above), and present day