Wow, TX, you're almost breaking my heart.  My hubby and I stayed at the Flagship the one time we visited Galveston in October 2007.  We had an absolute blast there (both the Flagship and Galveston).  One of the things we enjoyed was being at our 4th floor balcony and feeding the seagulls.  None of our leftovers went to waste and we bought 4 loaves of bread as well.  The Flagship was such a cool place to stay out over the water. 

I had been cautioned away from that place here on the forum, but decided to go ahead and take a chance on it and I'm glad I did.  It was exactly as I had envisioned.

I was afraid being out on the water like she was that Ike probably did some damage..........it could have been a lot worse.  It is a shame that it's just sitting there and not being used or fixed up.

 anyone notice the not so artistic artwork inside the flagship?? not sure how long thats been there but some ding dong has risked life and limb to spraypaint trash on the walls and though im not one for mean thoughts and im pretty sure they did some looting whilst there, so... i hope they stepped on a long rusty nail... the pain and the shots needed afterwards or pain from lack of shots would be a pretty good universial punishment.... but it pretty much makes me sick that people in the wake of a disaster cant pull themselves out of the trash long enough to act somewhat decent.... Also quick question how did they remove the vehicles that were left on the "pier" during ike, surely ike did not wash them ALL away ...

OK.  I tried not to ask, but where is the "artwork"?  In the lobby?  Where is it visible from?  (So I can have my sister check it out on her fact-finding mission when she's there the first weekend in March.)   Apparently, people seem to be able to get in the building in spite of the dangerous way in from the street.  Police recently removed squatters living there according to GCDN.   I know neither new owner or former leasee/management group want to touch it because then they will have to pay taxes, be responsible, do something, etc.

From all pictures I have seen, there really are no signs up that say “Do not enter” or blockades to keep people out.  I would think that the city would have done this if for no other reason than safety.  Five months after the event and nothing, apparently. 

As for the cars, there were only a handful there, like three if I remember correctly, before the surge.  Now I have been told that there is only the one red car there.  I’m sure it’s a write off for someone to collect insurance on.

 Its true you could stay on the other side of Seawall Blvd for the same or even less money...but then you were on the OTHER SIDE!! lol.  I just started vacationing in Galveston with my best friend a few years ago, and we have stayed everytime at the Flagship.  We'd laugh about how some of our more fastidious friends would never be able to get to sleep there, but there was nowhere else we wanted to stay.

True, she was a rusty old bucket, but where else could you sit on a balcony over the water at night and watch guys standing in the water fishing?  Year before last when we were there, there was a hurricane further south in the gulf, and it made nice waves along the pier.  We LOVED watching the surfers try to catch what were, to them, fat juicy waves.  I mean, really.  How much more fun is there than to sit on your balcony and watch pretty boys with their shorts showing their tan line paddle out to try and catch a wave?  At one point, we counted 30 surfers on our side of the hotel (the east side which took the brunt of Ike).

The waves that week also took away all other sound but the crashing of the waves.  Won't find that on the other side of the street for sure. 

I hope that someone with money AND half a heart will at least try to salvage her.  I hate to think I'm never going to get to sit on that balcony and feel the sun creep up my body to my face early in the morning. 

And hey...a little respect for the mermaids!  heh.  That was one of my favorite parts of the whole place! 

I hope she makes it.  If I had the money and the know how, I'd fix the Flagship up myself.

*le sigh*

Thanks, suejm, for the info.  I get the shivers thinking about someone illegally going up the walkway on the east side of the pool, that had been closed off to foot traffic already for several years, and then going in by whichever hole they went in.  Then there's the long scary climb up the dark, dank stairwell to the fifth, probably sixth floor to stand out on part of a structure that has been exposed to the elements for five months now to commemorate their visit by leaving graffiti for the world to see.   I have wondered, although I would never go on the pier myself in its present condition, whether the doors of the rooms are hanging open or if they are still locked shut.   The part of that hole on the fifth floor is awfully close to my old room.  I know I will never get to stay there again and sit out on that balcony and watch the world go by.  

The new owner is someone with a lot of money, for sure; however, it appears that he is not quite ready to claim ownership of the Flagship just yet.  It seems that either conditions are not quite right in the state of Texas to legalize gambling yet or the time is not right to build a Kemah boardwalk on the Island, so there appears to be no rush to salvage anything of the Flagship on his part, so goes the speculation of the interested.

Again, what a tribute to the Island if the owner would "recreate" the original concept of the Flagship as being a symbol that the Island could bounce back from the fury of nature's course to be a grand reminder of the resilience of the people of Galveston.  I have yet to see a casino that would promote the view or the sounds of the Gulf over the need to keep the natural light out of the casino so that people would not know what time it was or quiet enough to hear the waves over the electronic clinks and general noise of a casino.  It would truly take an innovative plan to accomplish preserving the greatness of being over the water while still raking in the big bucks from the people who come to the Island, gamble and leave without seeing much else or dropping money anywhere else on the Island.  I would have a hard time gambling knowing that there was so much to see outside the gilded doors.

As for the mermaids, if I could get to stay at the Flagship Hotel Over the Water again, I wouldn’t even complain about them.

 I think it's becoming pretty obvious they're going to have to tear The flagship down.  But before they do, wouldn't it be fun to see the inside just one last time.  I wish the kids or whoever broke in would have taken pictures and then posted them on the web somewhere - for some reason that really sparks an interest in me.  I don't have the nerve to climb the fence they're put over the walkway - but I wish I did.  I can't imagine how that red car that was in the parking lot was ever removed.

Thus, the downward decline continues. . .

 I still hope that the owner will consider a restoration. Anyone have any recent photos of the hotel.

 I have some from Spring break. When my sis downloads them I will put on here.

I worked there for a very short amount of time at a very short lived restaurant.

I spent one whole shift wacthing Dolphins mate. Made it all worth it. They were under and around us, was a fasinating afternoon : only on Galveston. 

 I'm planning on being on the Island this weekend.  You know I will probably fill my memory card on my new camera, probably just from the Flagship alone.  It is really going to be weird being in Galveston but not being at the Flagship.  I'm sure the car will just beeline there out of force of habit.  This is going to be hard after staying there two or three weeks out of the last 14 years or so.  Truly the end of an era for us.

If I ever learn how to post pictures here, I would be glad to share mine.  I have some great "before" ones already.  Hope the weather is great this weekend.

I think your "before" pictures would be interesting, since you have such a long history there.  I know you surely got a lot of good pictures in all those years that a lot of us  would like to see.  I'm afraid I can't personally say the same for the "after" pictures, however.  During the last seven months, I've seen more than my fill of the "after" appearance of the sad old derelict   I imagine recording the old gal's current condition is gonna be a kind of painful experience for you. 

Hope the weather does turn out good for you.  Sure is great right now.

Was this restaurant inside the Flagship?  I was never there when the dining area was open.  What was it like - and was there very much business?  I'm intrigued about what the inside of that place looked like - and especially what it must look like now.  The one time I was there the dining area was closed and looked like it had been for some time.  There were bunches of old mattresses stacked up in one corner and they appeared to be wet.  The place was in decline and this was probably 10 years ago at least.  Thanks in advance for any insight you can share.

Just got back from Galveston awhile ago.  It is a crime the way the Flagship is being treated now.  Yes, there is a "fenced gate" up to keep people out, but it's not working.  In the few days that we were there, we could see evidence that someone had been up on the pier overnight.  For instance, there was a sort of overstuffed armchair out by the north "ballroom" entrance stairs.  The next morning, it was across the parking lot near the other side of the pier.  The wind could not have blown it there.

The maroonish-colored car that was left up there has been moved over by the pool.  Not sure if it was done to make it easier to strip or if they actually thought they could get it off down the east side of the pool ramp.  Honestly, it looks like more windows are blown out than it showed immediately after IKE.  Also on the third floor westside four doors from the gulf end that there is a wooden chair like jammed against the broken glass door about waist high.  Was it that way all along?

We were there on a really windy day.  Curtains were blowing from so many windows, especially along the west side.  It just seems to look so much worse month by month.

I understand that neither owner (past/future) will touch the property because that would admit ownership and ownership would entail having to pay taxes etc. and since, according to GCDN, the past owner is in jail for FEMA-related fraud and the new owner isn't quite ready to begin building yet, it's all tied up in court.  I suppose it will all work out for the good to the future owner because by the time he gets ready to build his gambling casino/Pleasure Pier playground amusement park(Kemah II)/whatever else is being speculated for there, there will be nothing left.  As someone said about building resorts/casinos on Bolivar, it's easier to start with a clean slate than to have to tear it down before you can start building again.

Oh, well.

This is so sad. In the spring of 2007 we went to the Galveston for a long weekend and my 8 year old daughter and nephew were dying to stay at the Flagship. Later that summer, we surprised them with a night there. They just thought that was the coolest. During the hurricane, my daughter was anxious to see pictures to make sure "her" hotel survived. She was upset when she saw the damage, but we were sure it would be fixed. We are planning another trip this summer (she has to see "her" island and make sure everything is ok). I am going to have to prepare her for this! She thought we might be able to stay there.

So is The Flagship hotel just open and rotting out there.  No access to it?  So if it were to catch on fire, they would prob be unable to put out the fire?  Seems like a huge hazard to me. 

An aquiaintense opened up a "fancy" restaurant in the Flagship. In my humble opinion, He had great ideas--He would cook up whatever you caught on the pier--but the clientel of the Flagship were looking for a more laidback breakfast\dinner  dining expierence. He had a hugh, fantastic  morning buffet and killer food preps at night. He was a great chef, but nobody came in! I was there no more than two weeks..waiting on two tables per shift wasn't gonna cut it, esp. as I watched people aim for the place, see us in Tuxes ( at 6am) and head the other way..real fast like!.

That was many years ago....

Now as I pull my truck onto Broadway to join the rest of the rat race heading to  UTMB way WAY before the sun comes up..I think back to days gone by, and I know how far I have come and have been truly, truly blessed to live in a town that has afforded me the opps to upgrade this much..I'll take comfoy scrubs at 6am for silly men's tux shirts with long black heavy skirts at anytime.

That's interesting, Cat.  I guess that one came and went and I never even knew about it.  What year was that?

I think I might remember that restaurant or perhaps it was a later attempt at a restaurant.  I do remember tuxes and room service.  Would that have been your time, Cat?  I can't recall the name.  It was like "The Wheelhouse," "Sea Breeze" or something, I think.  Whatever it was, it was very nautical sounding.  This was some time in the 90s, I would guess because we began staying there right at the end of the 80s.

I remember that people would order room service from the restaurant and then set their trays out in the hallway when they were done, and the trays would stay there overnight and smell up the hall.   The menu was posted on the wall between the elevators and in the elevators.  This may have been a more recent restaurant because I remember it having a fair crowd a time or too, including walkin guests off the street, maybe locals, but you're right about the guests looking askance at the tuxes because that would have meant that the waitresses and waiters were dressed far more elegantly than we were.

Of course, we did not eat at the restaurant when they served breakfast there because if you multiply $7.95 by 7 people by a week or so, then our breakfasts there would total up as much as another night's stay or more. 

When the restuarant was opened, like in the off-season, or opened on the weekends but not the week days, they would do the continental breakfast of just doughnuts, juice, and coffee.  For the last few years, their year-round breakfast was coffee, juice, milk, hot & cold cereal, muffins, toast, fruit, and doughnuts.  With the exception of the Texas-shaped waffles at the chain hotel we stayed at last week, the breakfasts were comparable to each other.

I also remember that the Flagship would host a huge New Year's Eve party in the south ballroom.  (There used to be a grand piano there that I have not seen in the last few years.  Sometimes it would be out in the lobby, but mostly it was in the south ballroom.)  There was a wooden dance floor, and they decorated the ballroom very elegantly for the party.  I think if you stayed there for New Year's for $199, you could go to the party and get a free bottle of champagne included in the price.

Of course, the views at breakfast were great.  If you were early enough, you could watch the tractor/scraper smooth out the sand on the beach or see any number of interesting sights just out of the big picture windows facing east.  The best breakfast with a view in town.