Davison Home

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The Davison Home is a Victorian structure built between 1895 and 1897 by Frank B. Davison (1855-1935), a pioneer of Texas City, Texas, and his wife Florence Grace Haven. It is currently operated as a museum by the Texas City Museum with the help of the Texas City Historical Association in the city originally known as Shoal Point.

Frank Burt Davison (1855–1935) is considered one of the founding fathers of Texas City, Texas, its first postmaster and grocer.

Texas City, Texas City in Texas, United States

Texas City is a city in Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas' Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and petrochemical-manufacturing center. The population was 48,558 in 2017, making it the third-largest city in Galveston County, behind League City and Galveston. It is a part of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. The city is notable as the site of a major explosion in 1947 that demolished the port and much of the city.

Built with cypress wood, the structure has survived multiple storms over more than 115 years and was damaged the most during the 1947 Texas City disaster after a chemical explosion.

Texas City disaster 1947 industrial accident

The Texas City disaster was an industrial accident that occurred April 16, 1947 in the Port of Texas City, Texas. It was the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, and one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions. Originating with a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp, her cargo of approximately 2,200 tons of ammonium nitrate detonated, initiating a subsequent chain-reaction of additional fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities. It killed at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department. The disaster triggered the first ever class action lawsuit against the United States government, under the then-recently enacted Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), on behalf of 8,485 victims.

The structure has been home to several generations of Davison family members. Texas City Mayor Emmett F. Lowry dedicated it as a city landmark in January 1974, according to historical markers on the property, which is now the centerpiece of the Texas City Heritage Park. It housed the first child born in Texas City, and was the first home with telephone service in the early 1900s.

The Davison family includes hundreds of members living mostly in Texas and extending as far away as Puerto Rico, whose past Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor, Kenneth Davison McClintock, is Frank B. Davison's great-grandson.

Kenneth McClintock American politician

Kenneth Davison McClintock-Hernández served as the twenty-second Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, one of the four longest serving in that post. McClintock served as co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s National Hispanic Leadership Council in 2008, he co-chaired her successful Puerto Rico primary campaign that year and served as the Thirteenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico until December 31, 2008. He chaired Luis Fortuño’s Incoming Committee on Government Transition in 2008 and the Outgoing Committee on Government Transition in 2012, the only Puerto Rican to serve in both capacities. He was sworn into office as secretary of state on January 2, 2009, by Chief Justice Federico Hernández Denton, fulfilling the role of lieutenant governor in the island.

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