 Matilda
Alice Sweeney Jumonville, 1916 Bridal Photo.
Donated by the Jumonville Family to the
Galveston Historical Foundation.
A
New Exhibit at Ashton Villa Features the
Weddings of Two Generations of Brown Family
Women: 1884 and 1916
"Something Borrowed, Something Blue"
Opens Friday, March
18, 2005
Ashton
Villa, Galveston Historical Foundation’s
most popular house museum and wedding venue,
will open a new exhibit highlighting
weddings that took place when the home was
an opulent center of Galveston society. The
exhibit will open with a champagne and
wedding cake reception on March 18th,
from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Galveston’s
first really grand house, Ashton Villa was
built for J. M. Brown in 1859, and was the
family residence until 1927.
During that long tenure, two
generations of Brown women were married
there: Matilda Ella Brown, in 1884, and her
daughter, Matilda Alice Sweeney (left) in
1916. The house became a museum operated by
Galveston Historical Foundation in 1974, and
has been the site of many weddings since,
but the Brown women set the standard for
nuptial style.
The
new exhibit provides a glimpse of those
historic weddings; the brides’ gowns have
been meticulously replicated by Dr. Ann
DuPont of the University of Texas, and both
Ella’s reception room and Alice’s
wedding venue, the Gold Room, are dressed
much as they were then. The Galveston County
Historical Museum has provided invitations
and wedding certificates from the turn of
the 20th century, and another period wedding
dress has been provided by the Houston
Heritage Society. Ashton Villa is open to
the public daily from noon with guided tours
on the hour, the last beginning at 4 p.m.
Adults:
$6; Students: $5; Families: $18. Group tours
by arrangement at $4.25/person. Call (409)
762-3933 for details.
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