Jalufka-Govatos House

Helen Jalufka's nickname, Captain, came from business, not the family gin. The Corpus Christi Landmark Commission says she earned it by running a boat works at the old Pleasure Pier downtown, and that the couple kept a notable rose garden at the first site on Mesquite Street. Pete and Minnie Lee Govatos, who bought the house in 1944, ran three Corpus Christi restaurants and helped establish St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The Czech Heritage Society of South Texas later restored the house for its offices and meeting rooms.

What the plaque says

Jalufka-Govatos House A first generation Texan, James Jalufka (1879-1969) was born in Lavaca County, the son of Moravian (Czech) immigrants. A veteran of the Spanish-American War, he also served as a soldier in World War I. He was a prominent south Texas cotton grower and owned a local cotton gin. Jalufka and his wife, Helen J., had this home built about 1905. Originally located at 1408 North Mesquite Street, it was part of the neighborhood known as "Old Irishtown". They continued to live in the house until 1919, after which time it was used as rental property. Pete and Minnie Lee Govatos, members of a family active in the city's Greek community since the 1920's, purchased the home from the Jalufkas in 1944. Residents of Corpus Christi since 1940, they operated a local restaurant and lived in the house until Minnie Lee's death in 1960. The house changed ownership several times after the Govatos family sold it, and eventually it fell into disrepair. Acquired by the city in 1987, it was moved to Heritage Park and renovated on its new site. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Art Museum of South Texas — 0.3 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• Texas State Aquarium — 0.6 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Mirador de la Flor — 0.7 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 0.7 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• McCampell House — steps away
• Irishtown — steps away
• Theodore Merchant Lawrence (January 16, 1861-August 10, 1941) — steps away
• Sidbury-Savage House — steps away