It's #2

Startling facts:  In the 1890s, Galveston was #2 in the country in both millionaires and immigrants. The only places that topped it were Newport, RI and Ellis Island. With a great harbor, it was a major export point for cotton and some other things I've yet to find out.

 

All this I learned on a tour of the completely over-the-top Bishop's Palace, built by a railroad magnate to show off his status. The bishop came later; the house is across the street from the equally over-the-top Sacred Heart church.

 

It's a little hard to reconcile the vow of poverty with a four-poster bed with hand-painted canopy and your own in-house chapel featuring German stained glass that took four years to complete.

But I guess you could argue that the Church bought the place for pennies and maintained a historic artifact. And the magnate's wife made good use of the dozen or so bedrooms when she gave 200 people refuge from the 1900 flood. Or so the story goes.

I want this staircase: