Steffens-Drewa House Complex

The Steffens-Drewa House and its associated structures comprise a significant site in the history of late 19th- and early 20th-century Galveston. The original house was built in 1870 by Dr. Ferdinand Steffens, a German emigre and Galveston physician. The property contained both his residence and his office. His son-in-law, Edward Drewa, was a master craftsman and building contractor, and he, too, used the property both as a residence and business. Drewa extensively enlarged and remodeled the house over the 20-year period from 1895 to 1914. Indeed, the house is a noteworthy architectural hybrid, incorporating Queen Anne, Bungalow, and Gulf Coast vernacular elements. The interior features outstanding examples of Drewa's plasterwork. Drewa also built the two rental houses next door in 1895-96; these are stylistically compatible and historically contributing. The Steffens-Drewa House remained in the family for 113 years, and the rental houses also remained in the family until 1944.

Ferdinand Steffens arrived in Galveston in 1860 from Hildesheim, Germany. At the start of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Galveston Artillery and later served as a military surgeon in Galveston. After the war, he practiced medicine at Galveston Medical College, and in 1873 he took up a private practice. In 1869 he married the widow Henrietta Luedeke, and the next year he built a house at 27th Street and Avenue 0. The household, which included Henrietta's two boys, Herman and Charles, was completed in 1872 with the birth of a daughter, Sophie. Dr. Steffens died in the hurricane of 1875, and Henrietta died in 1886, leaving Sophie in the care of her two half-brothers. Charles Luedeke, who worked as a house painter, introduced his half-sister to a young plasterer named Edward Drewa, whom she married in 1891.

Edward F. Drewa was born in Galveston in 1868 of German parents. In 1888 he met the noted Galveston architect Alfred Muller, through whom he was able to get construction work. Soon Drewa began training as a plasterer, and in 1893-94 he began his own concrete, plaster, and cement business, operating out of the ground floor of his house. Edward and Sophie Drewa had five children, four boys and one daughter, Sedonia.

Drewa is said to have been instrumental in the stucco and plaster work on many Galveston landmarks, including the Leon & H. Blum Building (1888), City Hall (1902, N.R. 1984), the Hotel Galvez (1910, N.R. 1979), and the John Sealy Women's Hospital (1917). The hurricanes of 1900 and 1915 also created a great deal of business for Drewa, including repairs to St. Mary's Cathedral (1900 and 1915, N.R. 1973), the 1st Presbyterian Church (1900, N.R. 1979), the Letitia Rosenberg Home for Women (1900 and 1915), and the Kauffman and Runge Building (1900, N.R. 1970). He was also the contractor for the north sidewalk and curbs of the Galveston Seawall, built between 1903 and 1907 (N.R. 1977). Edward's oldest son, Edwin C. Drewa, learned the plasterer's trade from his father, and after 1930 ran the business on his own.

The Steffens-Drewa House is significant as the home of a master craftsman, especially given that Drewa personalized the house in a series of building campaigns stretching over nearly 20 years. In common with the Gulf Coast vernacular, the house is raised five feet from the ground, but its blending of Queen Anne and Bungalow elements is highly unusual, in Galveston or elsewhere. The interiors are especially significant as examples of the fine plasterwork which Drewa executed. His own house was a great advertisement for his business, for the ceilings of the principal rooms display some of his finest craftsmanship. Its significance is enhanced by the way in which the rental houses at 2707 and 2709 Avenue O harmonize with the main house.

Both 2707 and 2709 Avenue O were built by Drewa as rental properties. The land had been in the possession of the Steffens-Drewa families for many years, and there is a strong potential for historical archaeology which has as yet been untested. Moreover, the house at 2707 Avenue O has additional significance in the family history, in that Sedonia Drewa and her husband Paul E. Carder lived there between 1919 and 1923. Paul Carder started out as a clerk for the Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad, and eventually became the vice president of the Galveston Building & Loan Company. By 1926 the Carders had moved to 2623 Avenue 0 1/2, but after the death of Edward Drewa in 1935, they moved to the Steffens-Drewa House to take care of her mother, Sophie, who lived until 1948. Paul Carder died in 1960, but Sedonia lived until 1982, reaching the age of 91. One year later the family sold the house and its Victorian furnishings to Raymond and Maxine Reesby. The house is in good condition, as are the two rental houses on the west. The lush oleanders lend to the Gulf Coast ambiance, and the houses still look out, as they have for over one hundred years, to the Garten Verein dancing pavilion in the center of Kempner Park.