Could Galveston have been the main city in the region? (Houston: construction, vs)

[em50tay2]

I was doing some research and I discovered that Galveston had more people than Houston and was more important in the 19th century. If the 1900 storm had never happened, do you think the growth would have been around Galveston with Houston as a satellite city?

Would Houston have taken over as the largest city regardless? Would Galveston have grown to be as big as Houston is now? Could our entire region have developed completely differently just because of a single event?

Food for thought

[kemahkami]

Yes, I do believe that Galveston would have been the main, important city of the region. Even if it's population were overtaken (and, actually, Houston's growth was primed to do that even before the hurricane), Galveston at the time still had the high concentrations of powerful families, and their accompanying affluence and prestige - it literally was the "Wall Street of the Southwest," wealth the likes that easily would have maintained itself had it not been wiped out by the hurricane. If nothing else, it would be a dynamic similar to what you see today with the San Francisco Bay Area, where San Francisco is the more well-known city, despite San Jose being larger in population.

And looking more into the context of population growth, Galveston might still have been able to support larger population, assuming it had ability to build Manhattan-levels of tall skyscraper density. The growth starts first on the barrier island, to the limits of extent and height as allowed by the barrier island structure + hurricane enforcement. Then, there'd be a secondary district on the mainland, where places like Texas City and La Marque currently sit.
North Galveston. / Galveston (Tex.) / 1891

The entire region would easily have been different. And for the better, in my opinion. With the greater coast-centric model of development, there would be much more control of suburban sprawl throughout the metro area. And with the construction based around the historic, dense urbanity of Galveston, there would also have been more robust public transportation across the area, with cohesive connection to the street cars of Galveston.

Even the beaches might have been better in terms of distribution across the island. The Sea Wall was built as a direct response to the 1900 Hurricane, and it's construction, while helping to protect the city from huge storm surges, also has implications in terms of speeding up the erosion of beaches along the front.

[Dopo]

From the little I read in google,
Several factors played into Houston becoming what it is today instead of Galveston
Railroads, building the ship channel and later building I-10

I think a better question is:
“Why is Galveston so crappy?”
Why don’t they do anything to improve it and make a touristy place?

[Dopo]

Looking at the map,
The closest thing to what you are saying might be St. Petersburg and Tampa Ba

[NigerianNightmare]

Galveston is far to small to have been the major city of the Houston area. Even assuming development was oriented significantly towards Galveston it would have been a small city of maybe 200,000-400,000. Houston's inner loop even if it never got the same amount of investment and development alone. In 1900 Houston was at 44,000 while Galveston was at 38,000 people. Galveston was also very bougie in 1900. So much of the development needed to make it a much denser city would likely never happen because wealthy landowners couldn't be bullied by land developers like in poorer cities.

Galveston would likely need to hit some sort of economic gold similar to oil to get around and break that 400,000 mark but even so, Galveston at 200,000 and Galveston County at 1,000,000 people roughly by today. Harris County would likely still have 2,000,000+ people and Houston 600,000+, likely even 1,000,000+, but Houston seeing less development could have seen some of the annexed areas become their own towns rather than get annexed. Also Northern and Western Houston would be weaker but Southern Houston would be much stronger.
Brazoria county would likely have 1,000,000+ people. I'm gonna guess development for several reasons will still be more West heavy than oriented around the Bay, and because of that, Brazoria might actually have more than Galveston County. Galveston County because it's in Texas, while some of the small towns will develop into denser coastal cities, I seriously doubt the county especially with some of it's geography see much more than 3,000 ppsm, it might hit close to 4,000 ppsm.
Houston today has 7,100,000 people my guess would be.
Brazoria County is as much as a winner in this scenario as Galveston.

Harris County- 3,200,000
Galveston County- 1,400,000
Brazoria County- 1,300,000
Chambers County- 600,000
Liberty County- 300,000
Fort Bend County- 300,000

But this with some sort of economic boom to Galveston to keep it more important historically and no Hurricane. More likely scenario with no Hurricane would be, Harris County losing 200,000 people Montgomery losing 300,000 people. Fort Bend losing 200,000 people. Brazoria gaining 200,000 people Chambers and Liberty gaining 100,000 people each. Galveston Gaining 300,000 more people much of that in Galveston itself and a bit in the Southern suburbs like Santa Fe.

[DanielWayne]

I don't remember the details but I believe Houston was better positioned for transportation like roads and railways, and also I think Houston's big oil was in it's infancy. That's something Galveston never had.

[Johnhw2]

I think Beaumont well might have been the major city in the region if they had wanted to grow. Nice deep natural port vs the ditch Houston had to build and call it the ship channel. Spindle Top was the first major producing find in the region as I recall.
Galveston had an opportunity too which was impacted by the hurricane. The comparison to Manhattan missed the difference in that Manhattan is on a rock not the soil like SE Texas. But all these options would have the same tropical rain flooding issues to address as Houston has.

[kemahkami]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

I think Beaumont well might have been the major city in the region if they had wanted to grow. Nice deep natural port vs the ditch Houston had to build and call it the ship channel. Spindle Top was the first major producing find in the region as I recall.

Galveston had an opportunity too which was impacted by the hurricane. The comparison to Manhattan missed the difference in that Manhattan is on a rock not the soil like SE Texas.

No, those geological differences were noted implicitly, hence the qualifier (assumption) after the comparison. It was just a matter of whether or not said differences are enough to appreciably affect the presence of tall skyscrapers - perhaps not, seeing the existence of numerous skyscrapers in Chicago and Dubai, two areas that also have loose ground.

But all these options would have the same tropical rain flooding issues to address as Houston has.

Though the presentations would vary depending on the proximity to large water area. Galveston and other areas immediately beside large enough water would get more of their flooding from storm surge, as pure heavy rains would quickly drain out. Even Houston wouldn't have near the flooding problems it has if development went eastward along the bayou through places like Brady's Landing - those eastward areas of the bayou are more than wide enough such as to be spared from flooding events (even from the likes of Harvey).

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

Galveston had an opportunity too which was impacted by the hurricane. The comparison to Manhattan missed the difference in that Manhattan is on a rock not the soil like SE Texas. But all these options would have the same tropical rain flooding issues to address as Houston has.

Similar with San Francisco,
1/2 of San Francisco is 100ft above sea level of higher.
Downtown Houston is 50ft above sea level.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

Yes, Galveston was larger, and more prosperous. Also, the main Mardi Gras celebrations on the Gulf Coast were at Galveston, and not New Orleans... if you can believe that!

Of course, this is according to reading about the history of Galveston... I'm not that old!