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:
“At no time in history ... have the people who are not fit for society had such a glorious opportunity to pretend that society is not fit for them. Knowledge of the slums is at present a passport to society—so much the parlor philanthropists have achieved—and all they have to do is to prove that they know their subject. It is an odd qualification to have pitched on; but gentlemen and ladies are always credulous, especially if you tell them that they are not doing their duty.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“I sang as one
Who on a tilting deck sings
To keep men’s courage up, though the wake hangs
That shall cut off their sun.”
—Cecil Day Lewis (1904–1972)