Shaw, M. W., Building

This two-story stuccoed brick commercial building at 2427 Avenue D in Galveston dates to about 1878 and appears to have been standing by 1879, possibly built by R.F. Martin. It is rectangular with a flat roof and a corbeled cornice and frieze. The street level has brick piers supporting an arcade of semicircular arches with hood molds, with six bays along the Market Street side. Upper-story window openings are spanned by segmental arches with brick hood molds. In the early 1890s the building was bought by M.W. Shaw, a jeweler and vice president of the Galveston Trust and Safe Deposit Co., who owned it for a long period; neither business was located here. Over the years it housed a wide variety of retail businesses. It is considered one of the earlier brick commercial structures remaining intact outside the Strand district. It serves as a landmark along 25th Street and anchors the west corner of its block, opposite the Central Hotel, the oldest frame commercial building downtown. It remains in commercial and residential use.