The 1887 Gustave Mayhoff Cottage is merry and bright this #StormSurvivorSunday, just a couple of weeks before Christmas! 🎄 Like many historic Galveston homes, it has been shaped by the lives of multiple families. While such homes often retain the name of their original owner, some deserve recognition for the others who called them home. The Mayhoff Cottage might be one of them—here’s why: On December 26, 1886, a “smart Sunday fire” destroyed the previous cottage owned by Gustave Mayhoff and partly operated as a boarding house by Mary Kettler. Gus and Mary rebuilt, and for the next 33 years their families lived at the corner of Avenue O. Over time, their partnership grew into a marriage in 1898. Mary’s son, Rudolf Kettler, and his wife, Theresa, remained until Rudolf’s death in 1920, marking the end of the Mayhoff-Kettler era. The next chapter began with Jefferson Davis Shaw and Annie Lee (née Clark), who moved in soon after. In 1922, they welcomed baby Nellie Adeline Shaw, who went...