Honky Tonk Foodie
Pompeii, Italy is a city preserved in time which has become one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions. If that seems a bit too far to travel, or if seeing the site with its 2.5 million annual visitors is too much crowd time, consider the Texas version. (Of course, we have one too!) Intended to be a “Dream City,” only one building actually materialized.
Photo: Museum of the Gulf Coast
The structure is an authentic copy of an upper-class Pompeiian home before the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 74 AD. In this Port Arthur copy, rooms are built around a traditional Roman peristyle, better known today as a three-sided courtyard that allows each room access. Originally, three similar structures were intended to be constructed on the eight-acre stretch. The second home was to be for John Warner “Bet-a-Million” Gates, a 20-room mansion in “Gone with the Wind”-style. A third house for investor Mr. James Hopkins never received a decision on design, and the latter two projects were abandoned. In the Pompeii Villa, each room features a different theme, including various pieces of art, relics, and furniture donated to the museum.
Photo: Museum of the Gulf Coast
Built in 1900 in Port Arthur, the Pompeiian Villa is a historic house designed by architects George C. Nimmons and William K. Fellows. It was built for Isaac Ellwood, a developer of barbed wire, secondly owned by James Hopkins from 1901 to 1903 as a sportsman getaway, next George Craig in exchange for Texaco stock, then Captain and Mrs. Arne Pedersen, and finally, by the Port Arthur Historical Society. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 1973. The house is open for tours by reservation with the Museum of the Gulf Coast. Check on available times and group sizes. A tour guide will accompany you to the actual home.
