Moody Mansion

The mansion at 2618 Broadway was finished in 1895 to designs by the British architect William H. Tyndall, with interiors by Pottier and Stymus of New York. It has four stories and 28,000 square feet. Soon after the storm of September 8, 1900, W. L. Moody Jr. bought it from the heirs of its first owners, and he, his wife and their four children spent their first Christmas there that December, three months after the hurricane.

The Moodys built one of the great American fortunes on cotton and then on banking, insurance, ranching, newspapers, railroads and hotels, and Moody was among the richest men in the country when he died in 1954. His eldest child, Mary Moody Northen, inherited the house and the businesses and was hailed as a pioneer among women in business. She lived here until 1983, when Hurricane Alicia damaged the house badly. After repairs and restoration it opened as a museum in 1991, filled with the family's own furnishings and belongings.

Visitors see twenty rooms on a self-guided audio tour, with docents on each floor. A two-hour guided tour on Fridays and Saturdays opens areas not usually shown. The house still runs a passenger elevator that the museum calls the only one to survive the 1900 storm and remain in use.