{"nrhp_refnum":"69000204","name":"Ashton Villa","other_names":["El Mina Shrine Temple","Brown,J.M.,House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2328 Broadway","address_restricted":false,"city":"Galveston","county":"Galveston County","state":"TX","lat":29.30026745600003,"lon":-94.79296365999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1969-10-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Ashton Villa, also called the J. M. Brown House, is a three-story brick Italianate villa at 2328 Broadway in Galveston, Texas, built in 1858 (some supporting material says 1858-1859) for hardware merchant J. M. Brown.","why_significant":"The nomination cites its architecture and its association with Colonel J. M. Brown, a wealthy Galveston businessman, railway president and bank founder. It served as headquarters for both Confederate and Union forces during the Civil War. Supporting material calls it one of the few Italian villa houses in the South and the first of Galveston's great palaces, and says its plans are preserved in the Library of Congress.","narrative":"Ashton Villa is a three-story brick house at 2328 Broadway in Galveston, built in 1858 for J. M. Brown. Brown, born in New York City in 1821, worked on the Erie Canal and as a master bricklayer before reaching Galveston in the early 1840s. He prospered in the hardware business, served as president of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railway, and helped form the First National Bank of Galveston. The house has a slightly projecting central portico, a flat roof with deep eaves on paired brackets, and arched upper openings. A large wing was added on the east in the 1890s, and later additions were made at the rear. During the Civil War the house served as headquarters for Confederate and later Union forces. Supporting material describes it as one of the few Italian villa houses in the South, with ironwork from England and carved interior woodwork from France. The Shriners bought it in 1928 and have used it as their meeting place since. The Texas State Historical Survey Committee designated it a landmark in 1967.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1858)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate (Italian or Mediterranean villa), per the supporting material","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed condition is fair; the building is occupied and has been used as a meeting place by the El Mina Shrine Temple since 1928, with preservation work noted as in progress or considered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:19.470844-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/88/9719/40971988/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/69000204.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000204/b098c6f48a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000204/b098c6f48a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"nsaum75¡שיחת!‎","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashton_Villa_Galveston_Texas.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">nsaum75¡שיחת!‎</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashton_Villa_Galveston_Texas.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971988","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashton_Villa","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4806081"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/galveston-county/ashton-villa-69000204/"}