Written by Natalie Aldridge.

There are houses that are beautiful, and then there are houses that seem to have lived a life of their own. Almost like living things, they bear the marks of those who came before. Each floorboard and plastered wall holds the memories of those who once occupied its rooms. And, if they are particularly lucky, they eventually find someone willing to listen to what they have to say.

For the 1874 Guest House in Galveston, Texas, those people were mother-and-daughter design duo Mary-Louise Stonecipher and Jordan Vaughn of Alayna Louise Interiors. We first came across the property when it opened a couple years ago. Not only did the restoration catch our attention, but so did the beautiful way in which the 1874 Guest House had been brought back to life. Now, as the historic home enters a new era following its sale, we are sharing its story.

Built in 1874 for Robert and Ellen Hughes, the stately home has occupied its corner in Galveston’s historic East End for more than 150 years. It survived the devastating Great Storm of 1900, witnessed two world wars, weathered a stint as a fraternity house and was eventually divided into apartments. By the time Mary-Louise discovered it in 2016, however, its survival was beginning to look considerably less certain.

Mary-Louise knew when she discovered the house that it would not be around much longer unless someone stepped in. She called her daughter and announced that they had found their next project. Upon seeing the dilapidated house, Jordan was somewhat less convinced, joking that she wasn’t doing Grey Gardens with her mother. Fortunately for the rest of us, she changed her mind.

What followed was an eight-year labor of love. The house was raised to protect it from future flooding, poor alterations were undone and architectural details painstakingly restored. Jordan and Mary-Louise then filled the rooms with antiques found on trips through Paris and the South of France, old portraits, beautiful furnishings, patterned wallpapers and rich textiles galore, with the house becoming something of a laboratory for their craft.

While little remains of the home’s original furnishings, what does remain helps tell its remarkable story. An original gilded mirror in the ladies’ parlor still bears the flood lines of both the Great Storm of 1900 and Hurricane Ike. Elsewhere, a ceiling imported from a castle in Genoa crowns the deep blue men’s parlor, while canopied beds, chintzes and layers of antique furniture give the bedrooms the feeling of having evolved over time rather than being newly decorated.

The mother-and-daughter duo poured their hearts and souls into each room, and after eight years of work, the 1874 Guest House opened its doors in 2024. What had once seemed perilously close to being lost was again filled with people and life. And then, after nearly a decade devoted to it, Jordan and Mary-Louise made the difficult decision to let it go. During those years, their own lives had evolved alongside the house. Jordan began a family, Mary-Louise became a grandmother, and new creative pursuits beckoned. Eventually, they realized it was time to “make room for what was next.”

There is something particularly poignant in Jordan’s belief that historic houses are only temporarily ours. Preservation is, after all, an act of stewardship. The goal is not necessarily to possess something forever, but to ensure that it survives to be loved by someone else and by generations to come. Homes like this are part of the fabric of our culture and heritage, after all.

While the sale of the 1874 marks the end of one chapter, it also marks the beginning of another. “There is something wonderful about knowing that a house with so much history will continue accumulating stories beyond our own,” Jordan notes. “We were fortunate to have our chapter with it,” she says, “to restore it, fill it with art and antiques, welcome people into it and, hopefully, leave it better and more loved than we found it.”

The 1874 has already lived many lives, and thanks to two women who saw what it might be again, it is ready for the next one. A beautiful lesson in stewardship, care and the enduring life of an old house.

Let’s take a closer look at The 1874 House.

Images courtesy of Kerry Kirk.

Thank you, Mary-Louise and Jordan, for your generosity in not only bringing this incredible home back to life, but for sharing its story with us. For more inspiration, follow @the1874guesthouse on Instagram and make sure to check out Alayna-Louise Interiors.

x Natalie

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Follow Natalie on Instagram: @natalieealdridge

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