As part of the city’s $1.1 million project to reconstruct Market Street sidewalks and curbs from 25th to 33rd streets, crews will preserve and reinstall a mosaic near 25th Street that harkens to a store once owned by a Galveston immigrant.
The mosaic bears the word Oshman, which refers to A. Oshman Clothier and Shoes, 2522 Market St., said Renee Tallent, manager of historic collections at the Galveston Historical Foundation.
This is one of several old business names on Market Street, but the only one being preserved in the Market Street sidewalk improvement effort, city spokeswoman Marissa Barnett said.>/p>
The other business names appear as stamps in the sidewalk concrete and would be difficult to preserve, Barnett said.
Born in 1888, Ancel Oshman immigrated to Galveston from Russia in 1902, Tallent said. He opened his shop six years later under the name Oshman & Sampson and it continued to operate for almost 60 years, she said. The store operated under various names over the years, including A. Oshman Clothier and Shoes, Oshman & Rosenberg and Oshman’s Clothing, Tallent said. Some records spelled Ancel various ways, she said.
“The business is listed in the 1960 City Directory, but by 1968 the address 2522 Market is vacant,” Tallent said.
Oshman died in 1966 in Corpus Christi, she said.
Kahla Bankston, who lives on Market Street, started to worry about the fate of the Oshman mosaic as the sidewalk project moved farther west, she said.
A friend pointed out the business names to her, she said.
“There’s history here in the sidewalks and no one talks about it,” Bankston said. “People walk over them and drive by and no one really knows anything about it.”
Bankston is glad to hear some of the history will be preserved, she said.
“I’ve walked over the sidewalks so many times without really thinking about it,” Bankston said.
In a seaport city rich with history and historic structures, preserving relics of the past has to be taken on a case-by-case basis, Catherine Gorman, historic preservation officer for the city, said.
“We take into account the condition — some items have been pretty damaged over time — and the significance, does the item refer to an important business or person,” Gorman said. “And we have to balance the need for public safety and accessible sidewalks.”
Public works crews come across pieces of history while working in the city all the time, Gorman said.
“You never know what’s underfoot in this town,” Gorman said.
If the project is federally funded, the environmental review process requires approval from the Texas Historical Commission, she said.
But this project is funded locally, Gorman said.
Reconstruction of sidewalks and curbs began in August and follows the reconstruction of Market Street between 19th and 25th streets, which crews completed earlier this year.
“In recent years, Galveston’s downtown district has extended down Market Street with new private and public investment in the area,” Barnett said. “The Market Street sidewalk and curb project is an investment in that corridor.”
The project is scheduled for a summer 2019 completion date, she said.
Other business names in the Market Street sidewalks include A.L. Pierson and the Cosmopolitan Bar, which was an African-American club in the 1950s and 1960s, historical foundation staff members said.