May 5, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
409-765-7834 (o); 409-771-5105 (c)

Galveston Historical Foundation’s “Linen and Lace” Champagne Brunch, Fashion Show and Historic Homes Tour is Unbeatable Way to Honor Texas Moms

Tickets Still Available for Elegant, Traditional Mother’s Day Event

(GALVESTON, TX) - It’s hard to imagine a better way to treat Mom on Mother’s Day than at Galveston Historical Foundation’s elegant “Linen and Lace Mother’s Day Brunch” in the Garten Verein, an 1880 dancing pavilion that is one of the most beautiful historic buildings in Texas. The Brunch will be held from 10 to noon on Mother’s Day Sunday, May 9. Garten Verein is located at 2704 Avenue O in Galveston.

The Garten Verein, where the city’s early German residents held fancy balls, weddings and other events, has a fresh coat of paint on its ornate Victorian gingerbread trim. The charming pavilion, still a favorite place for weddings, dance recitals, Mardi Gras balls and many other activities, overlooks one of the oldest and prettiest parks in southeast Texas. The venerable Garten Verein is a particularly noteworthy part of Galveston- and Texas-history because it survived the 1900 Storm that wiped out every other structure for many blocks around.

The Mother’s Day champagne brunch will include a fashion show of designer clothes for women of all ages by the popular Galveston boutique “Head to Footsies.”

“Head to Footsies” owner Joyce Calvert promises one of the most diverse fashion shows a Mom could hope to see.

“We have more than 50 lines of clothing and nearly as many lines of shoes,” Calvert said. “We have fashions for women 12 to 93!”

Models, including mother and daughter volunteers, will don clothing ensembles with labels from designers such as Bentley A, Abbie Mags, Nic and Zoe, Eileen Fisher and many more.

“We will show jewelry, shoes, fashion boots and swimsuits as well,” Calvert said.

Tickets to this most memorable Mother’s Day brunch a Texas Mom will ever experience are $45 each and the price includes Galveston Historical Foundation’s 10-house 2010 Historic Homes Tour, which runs Saturday, May 8, and Sunday, May 9. All brunch patrons are automatically entered to win prize drawings, including dinners, gift certificates, artwork and tickets to GHF’s famed Christmas festival Dickens on the Strand. Linen or lace is the preferred brunch attire.

Linen and Lace brunch tickets are available online at www.galvestonhistory.org. Click on the Historic Homes Tour ticket button and order your tickets today. Patrons can begin the homes tour on Saturday, May 8 and take in a relaxing brunch on Mother’s Day morning, and continue touring homes till end of day Sunday.

GARTEN VEREIN IN A NUTSHELL:

In February 1876, a group of German businessmen organized the Galveston Garten Verein ("garden club") as a social club for family and friends. The group purchased the five-acre homestead of Robert Mills, a prominent Galveston businessman, and laid out the property as a park, with a clubhouse, lawns, gardens and walkways, bowling alleys, tennis courts, croquet grounds, playgrounds and a dancing pavilion. The Garten Verein's tiered dancing pavilion, built in 1880, is the only one of the structures to survive the 1900 Storm. The architect is unknown.

After World War I, when overt “Germanness” had fallen out of fashion in America, a steady decline in membership in the Garten Verein led the remaining members in 1923 to sell the property to Stanley Kempner. He donated it to the city as Kempner Park, dedicated to his parents, Eliza Seinsheimer and Harris Kempner. The Garten Verein pavilion was restored in 1981 after a fire and in 1998, the entire Kempner Park and pavilion were refurbished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund.

It remains today one of the finest public spaces on Galveston Island. Garten Verein is managed by GHF and is available for rent. Capacity for a sit-down dinner is 250. For rates, go to www.galvestonhistory.org and click on “rentals.” Or call GHF at 409-765-7834