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:
“Oh! what a poor thing is human life in its best enjoyments!—subjected to imaginary evils when it has no real ones to disturb it! and that can be made as effectually unhappy by its apprehensions of remote contingencies as if it was struggling with the pains of a present distress!”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“One day in the country
Is worth a month in town.”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)