Why do churches of the same faith built in the same location and era of time differ in their built form? The focus of this dissertation led to the identification of four variables that influence the built form. These are culture, faith, environment and building technology. The physical location (Galveston, Texas), Catholicism, and era of time (last half of the nineteenth century (19C)) are significant to the framework of this study. A single location held constant the physical environment-climate and topography. Catholicism held constant faith. The era of time exposed the study churches to the same, but evolving, built environment and building technology. Galveston, in particular, during the era of study, presented a dynamic confluence of these variables. The city emerged as the commercial entrepôt and financial center for Texas. It was Texas's cultural capital and its most dynamic urban center boasting the most advanced architecture. It had the best newspapers and theater in the state and was the first city in Texas to provide electricity and telephones. During this era Galveston was a gateway for thousands of European Catholic immigrants, who brought to Texas a diversity of culture, traditions and skills. The Catholic Church chose Galveston as the place to reassert itself in America against a Protestant wave swept westward on a tide of settlement. A conceptual model illustrating the interaction of these variables among each other and on the built form was created. From this model two subordinate models were developed and three hypotheses were derived which test the assumption that variety in church form and construction is a function of culture. The research is a qualitative approach implementing a comparative analysis methodology of multiple cases-five Catholic churches (the study units). The data for the individual study units were analyzed against a set of criteria for each of the variables identified. A comparative analysis matrix was used to contrast these data between the variables and the study units from which conclusions were drawn. The results of this analysis demonstrated that of these variables culture was the most influential on the built form, thus supporting the research hypotheses. Therefore, it is concluded that the variety in the churches' built form was a function of culture.

Why do churches of the same faith built in the same location and era of time differ in their built form? The focus of this dissertation led to the identification of four variables that influence the built form. These are culture, faith, environment and building technology. The physical location (Galveston, Texas), Catholicism, and era of time (last half of the nineteenth century (19C)) are significant to the framework of this study. A single location held constant the physical environment-climate and topography. Catholicism held constant faith. The era of time exposed the study churches to the same, but evolving, built environment and building technology. Galveston, in particular, during the era of study, presented a dynamic confluence of these variables. The city emerged as the commercial entrepôt and financial center for Texas. It was Texas's cultural capital and its most dynamic urban center boasting the most advanced architecture. It had the best newspapers and theater in the state and was the first city in Texas to provide electricity and telephones. During this era Galveston was a gateway for thousands of European Catholic immigrants, who brought to Texas a diversity of culture, traditions and skills. The Catholic Church chose Galveston as the place to reassert itself in America against a Protestant wave swept westward on a tide of settlement. A conceptual model illustrating the interaction of these variables among each other and on the built form was created. From this model two subordinate models were developed and three hypotheses were derived which test the assumption that variety in church form and construction is a function of culture. The research is a qualitative approach implementing a comparative analysis methodology of multiple cases-five Catholic churches (the study units). The data for the individual study units were analyzed against a set of criteria for each of the variables identified. A comparative analysis matrix was used to contrast these data between the variables and the study units from which conclusions were drawn. The results of this analysis demonstrated that of these variables culture was the most influential on the built form, thus supporting the research hypotheses. Therefore, it is concluded that the variety in the churches' built form was a function of culture.

Acoustic current meter data collected in the shallow ( 3m depth) Trinity Bay, (TB a sub-bay in Galveston Bay), TX, estuary were used to characterize locally generated windwaves. Significant wave heights, periods, and directions were estimated from dynamic pressure time-series (P; near bottom) and horizontal current velocities (U, V). Surface wave spectra were calculated from the pressure time-series and fitted to the empirical shallowwater Texel, Marsen, and Arsloe wave spectrum. The mean shape parameters used to define the TB wave spectra were:alpha = 0:016, gamma = 4:26, sigma-a = 0:063, sigma-b = 0:089. Waves heights were also hindcast using empirical and numerical models. The empirical formulas were derived from fetch-limited shallow water observations and follow the current proposed asymptotic limit to wave growth in shallow depth. The depth range for this empirical formulation is extended from 0.5–2m out to 3.5m. The model does not work for wind speeds less than 1m/s and during rapid wind direction changes. The Shallow WAves Nearshore numerical model was implemented in a Galveston Bay (GB; encompassing TB) computational domain. The model was forced with wind speeds and directions measured on-site and in four surrounding locations maintained by the NOAA PORTS. Currents measured on-site in TB and calculated bottom frictions were input homogeneously in space. The model was run in steady and unsteady conditions, and the modeled wave spectra were compared to the observations. The modeled wave spectra do not recreate the observed spectral shape for the steady and unsteady conditions. However, the total wave energy is represented in the unsteady conditions. In both the steady and unsteady cases, the wave period is underpredicted by one-half times the observed spectra and the model direction agrees with the observed wave directions.

From the 1920s until the 1950s, brothers, Sam and Rosario Maceo, ran an influential crime family in Galveston, Texas. The brothers’ success was largely due to Galveston’s transient population, the turbulent history of the island, and the resulting economic decline experienced at the turn of the 20th century. Their success began during Prohibition, when they opened their first club. The establishment offered bootlegged liquor, fine dining, and first class entertainment. After Prohibition, the brothers continued to build an empire on the island through similar clubs, without much opposition from the locals. However, after being suspected of involvement in a drug smuggling ring, the Maceos were placed under scrutiny from outside law enforcement agencies. Through persistent investigations, the Texas Rangers finally shut down the rackets in Galveston in 1957. Despite their influence through the first half of the 20th century, on the island and off the island, their story is largely missing from the current literature.

The Texas Volunteer Guard, created by the Militia Law of 1879, continued to allow African Americans to serve as citizen soldiers. From 1880 to 1906 over six hundred black men faithfully served in the various state militia companies of Galveston and San Antonio; yet, their service has rarely obtained scholarly attention. Often discounted by historians as mere social clubs or deemed too few and insignificant to warrant study, these men sought not only to demonstrate their citizenship, but to improve their social status during a period of racial segregation. The differences and similarities of these groups of African American men at the grassroots level are illuminated by using the comparative method to examine socioeconomic characteristics. Furthermore, this examination demonstrates how racial attitudes remained flexible enough during this period to allow these men to participate in military-type activities. An examination of these activities, both as citizens and as soldiers, makes evident what inspired this state military service. Framed within the network of local fraternal, social, religious, educational, and political organizations, coupled with a study of previous military service, the militia companies expose the aim of these African American men to improve their social status as citizens through militia participation. The Adjutant General of Texas issued firearms, ammunition, and equipment to the respective companies of African American militiamen from these cities, and coordinated training exercises, which involved the travel of armed black men over the state’s existing railroads. Despite their segregated status, the very presence of armed, uniformed black men officially sanctioned by the Democratic-controlled government of Texas suggests that race relationships still remained flexible enough during this time for African Americans to display their citizenship and manhood through state military service. Conversely, their dissolution in 1906 reveals the termination of that flexibility and solidified their status as second-class citizens. Even though they were unsuccessful in continuing their military organization, the heroic efforts of these men deserves inclusion in the written history of the long struggle for African American civil rights in this country.

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The history of the Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF) reveals how innovative Galvestonians looked to the past to create a future for their distressed city and inspired the development of one of the nation's leading local historic preservation organizations. Galveston, an island city fifty miles south of Houston, flourished economically and culturally as Texas's leading city during the nineteenth century. By 1900, islanders had built a city filled with handsome commercial and residential structures that reflected Galveston's significant status. The city rebuilt following the devastating Hurricane of 1900, but it never recovered its past glory. With the opening of the Houston Ship Channel in 1914 and the overall growth of Houston, Galveston's prominence slipped away. In 1954 a group of preservation-minded men and women organized the Galveston Historical Foundation to prevent the destruction of the second oldest house on the island, the Samuel May Williams House. Influenced by past Galveston historical societies, GHF's volunteer leadership worked to raise awareness of the city's historical and architectural treasures. Many born-on-the-island Galvestonians did not initially see the purpose of saving dilapidated houses and abandoned commercial buildings, and they had to be persuaded. Little-by-little GHF leaders succeeded and the preservation movement found a foothold on the island. With the hiring of the Foundation's first executive director, Peter Brink, in 1973 and the establishment of a revolving fund to save commercial properties on the Strand, GHF began to materially impact the island's physical, cultural, and economic landscape. The subsequent work of the Foundation in the 1970s and 1980s was not easy, but it resulted in the evolution of Galveston from a run-down, second-rate, beach town into a popular destination for historically-minded tourists. It also helped begin the positive transformation that occurred in Galveston's residential neighborhoods and inspired homeowners (of all economic backgrounds) to maintain their property. As GHF worked to revitalize the city, the Foundation itself transformed from a small, volunteer-led historical society into a professionally-managed, nationally-recognized, non-profit institution.

The structure and function of coastal marshes results from a complex interaction of biotic and abiotic processes that continually influence the characteristics of marsh vegetation. A great deal of research has focused on how tidal processes influence vegetation dynamics along the Atlantic coast, but few studies have investigated the influence of similar processes in the marshes along the Gulf of Mexico. This study aims to identify the characteristic vegetation assemblages of the coastal marshes bordering the East Bay of Galveston Bay, Texas, and identify if elevation, inundation frequency and burning frequency are important to their structure. To identify characteristic vegetation assemblages, hierarchical cluster analysis was used. The cluster analysis resulted in seven statistically different vegetation assemblages that were used in diversity analysis and classification and regression analysis (CART) as dependent variables. Diversity measures were calculated at both the plot and assemblage scale using Shannon's diversity index and species richness. The resulting diversity measures were used as predictor variables in the CART analysis as well as regression analysis. Hydrologic modeling was accomplished using Mike 21, a flow and wave simulation model, along with a geographic information system (GIS), to model hourly inundation frequency at each of the sampled plots. The inundation frequency was then used as a predictor variable in the CART analysis and regression analysis. This study found that the main factor contributing to species richness was elevation. Vegetation assemblages at high elevations generally had high diversity, and assemblages at low elevations had lower diversity. Elevation and inundation frequency are inversely related, and the strong correlation between species richness and elevation also assumes that inundation frequency is important in structuring the marsh. Burn frequencies had no influence on diversity in general, but more frequent burning did result in monospecific stands of Spartina patens at Anahuac NWR.

Freshwater inflows are essential to the health of estuaries and minimum discharge levels must be maintained in order to sustain a healthy ecosystem. Due to the predicted 50% increase in urban population growth along the Texas coastline by the year 2050, water regulators and managers are faced with the challenge of meeting human needs, while maintaining essential freshwater inflows into estuarine ecosystems. Galveston Bay is of particular concern because 10 million people currently living within its watershed. Freshwater inflows into Galveston Bay during 2006 were determined by using daily discharge data from a United States Geological Survey (USGS) sampling gauge in the Trinity River. Changes in water quality parameters, primary productivity, and phytoplankton community structure in response to freshwater inflows, were monitored monthly to determine how the phytoplankton community responded to inflow events. Freshwater inflow into Galveston Bay during 2006 was indicative of a low-inflow year, with seven large (>7,000 ft.3 sec-1) inflow events occurring throughout the year. There were significant differences in phytoplankton biomass (Fm), photosynthetic efficiency (alpha), and photosynthetic potential (yield) of the phytoplankton community, between wet (January-April and October-December) and dry (May-September) months. Significant differences in the biomass of phytoplankton groups also occurred with cyanobacteria being present in higher concentrations during the dry months and diatoms & dinoflagellates during the wet months. Low flow periods favored cyanobacteria, which lead to decreased secondary productivity, while pulsed inflow events resulted in enhanced secondary productivity by favoring diatoms and dinoflagellates. Resource Limitation Assays (RLAs) indicated that nitrogen was a potential limiting nutrient in Galveston Bay during spring/summer, with light limitation of phytoplankton communities possibly occurring near the mouth of the Trinity River. This study demonstrates the role of freshwater inflows in determining the primary productivity and community composition of the phytoplankton in Galveston Bay over an annual cycle. Inter-annual studies are needed to elucidate the impact of freshwater inflows in years with higher inflows to Galveston Bay and determine which of these impacts need to be incorporated into water management decisions to maintain a healthy ecosystem.