Present Day
Today the Strand features shops, historical exhibits, museums, art galleries and many restaurants and night clubs. It is also the location of a very popular annual Mardi Gras celebration, as well as a Christmas festival known as Dickens on the Strand, which celebrates the city's Victorian heritage with participants roaming the Strand in period dress.
Attractions within the area include The Galveston County Museum, the Galveston Railroad Museum, Victorian architecture, horse and carriage rides, historical markers, an old fashioned trolley for transportation, and a giant chess set in Saengerfest Park. The historic district also contains a variety of retailers, including clothing, factory outlets, souvenir shops, art galleries, antique galleries.
On the outer edges of the Strand is the Post Office district, known for its antique and art galleries and the Grand 1894 Opera House. Closer to the water is Pier 21, which has daily showings of the movies The Great Storm of 1900 and The Pirate Island of Jean Lafitte, the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum, and the Texas Seaport Museum with tall ship Elissa.
The Strand sustained significant and catastrophic damage from the storm surge of Hurricane Ike on September 13, 2008 prompting the National Trust for Historic Preservation to add the district to the 2009 list of America's Most Endangered Places.
Read more about this topic: Strand Historic District
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or day:
“Happy you poets who can be present and so present by a simple flicker of your genius, and not, like the clumsier race, have to lay a train and pile up faggots that may not after prove in the least combustible!”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“He that shall see this day and live old age
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors
And say, “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)