Donnellan Crypt Cemetery On Franklin St.

[pookrat]

Yeah. Just kinda starange. Maybe they are part of the same structure. Cause that quote is coming from the same person who has pictures of the door to the vault on his site as well... I dunno.

[Disastro]

When my girl left me, I crept into the crypt and cried.

I hope you're more butch now!

Kidding...just kidding...

[neuman]

Yeah. Just kinda starange. Maybe they are part of the same structure. Cause that quote is coming from the same person who has pictures of the door to the vault on his site as well... I dunno.

Yeah, and maybe the aliens built it after they finished the pyramids. I didn't think that I had to come out and say it but, apparently, I do - THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THAT THIS IS THE DONNELLAN VAULT.

Whew, that makes me feel better.

[northbeaumont]

I hope you're more butch now!

Kidding...just kidding...

What is "butch?" I've heard that word applied to mannish women. How do you mean it?

I got that line from a record by Homer & Jethro. In the song, a guy in Egypt had a job building a pyramid. His girlfriend left him for the Pharoah. So he went inside the pyramid, and he "crept into the crypt and cried."

[porphyrula]

Yeah, and maybe the aliens built it after they finished the pyramids. I didn't think that I had to come out and say it but, apparently, I do - THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THAT THIS IS THE DONNELLAN VAULT.

Whew, that makes me feel better.

I gotta agree with you, but it was certainly fun getting to that conclusion!

[OldGuardGuy]

If i recall i believe there used to be a Texas Historical Plaque located on Commerce between Travis and Milam on the Northern part of the street. Basically in the area by the new entrance with a canoe structure. It was removed when they remade the street and in parking spots. There is a tree next to where the plaque was located. It stated that 2 people were killed when they hit an artillery shell from a sunken ship in the area. The bodies were removed but the ship is still buried there. The ship was heading back/from Galveston. I have posted the question about the plaque about 8 months back. This was only a block away from the current crypt.

Do you mean this plaque?

[GREASER]

how deep WAS the bayou? How deep is it now...I just cant imagine a ship (I imagine more of a small boat) would go down the bayou...I realize it has changed some, but damn, deep enough to conceal a ship?

[neuman]

how deep WAS the bayou? How deep is it now...I just cant imagine a ship (I imagine more of a small boat) would go down the bayou...I realize it has changed some, but damn, deep enough to conceal a ship?

Making an educated guess, I would say that the bayou is 10-12 feet deep. Some blockade runners had a draft as shallow as 4 feet and a low freeboard to avoid detection by those damned Yankee blockaders!

[theoriginalkj]

how deep WAS the bayou? How deep is it now...I just cant imagine a ship (I imagine more of a small boat) would go down the bayou...I realize it has changed some, but damn, deep enough to conceal a ship?

The various internet descriptions of where the ship sank only say things like "short of the Allen's Landing dock" or such things, which could mean that the ship is in the general vicinity of the Franklin Street Bridge. Does anyone know where it is exactly?

[neuman]

The various internet descriptions of where the ship sank only say things like "short of the Allen's Landing dock" or such things, which could mean that the ship is in the general vicinity of the Franklin Street Bridge. Does anyone know where it is exactly?

If memory serves me, it was located between the Travis and Milam street bridges, roughly where the historical marker once stood. There was an archeological "dig" in the late 1960's that recovered some artifacts from the ship. The book "Treasure's of Galveston Bay" has a section on the ship and the recovery of artifacts. I'll dig it out tonight.

[sevfiv]

Here are a couple of the articles referenced:

[fatesdisastr]

Yeah, and maybe the aliens built it after they finished the pyramids. I didn't think that I had to come out and say it but, apparently, I do - THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THAT THIS IS THE DONNELLAN VAULT.

Whew, that makes me feel better.

I gotta agree with you, but it was certainly fun getting to that conclusion!

I wrote Louis Aulbach, the guy who wrote "Buffalo Bayou: An Echo Of Houston's Wilderness Beginnings" about the controversy over the brewery and vault. This is what he said, "The ruins of the Magnolia Building (the former Magnolia Brewery) are located on the downstream edge of the modern Franklin Avenue bridge while the Donnellan Grave Vault is directly under the bridge."

Hope that helps clarify, or maybe fuel the fire. Either or.

[dbigtex56]

I wrote Louis Aulbach, the guy who wrote "Buffalo Bayou: An Echo Of Houston's Wilderness Beginnings" about the controversy over the brewery and vault. This is what he said, "The ruins of the Magnolia Building (the former Magnolia Brewery) are located on the downstream edge of the modern Franklin Avenue bridge while the Donnellan Grave Vault is directly under the bridge."

Hope that helps clarify, or maybe fuel the fire. Either or.

Oh, let's fuel it.

How close is this to the reconstruction near the new Houston Ballet building? Is the new bridge near this site?

[kylejack]

That's a block away. The crypt entrance can be seen from the street level during the day in a small railed opening on the edge of the bank's parking lot. I've marked the crypt location here. You can stand at this spot on the rail to see the crypt. Note the ballet center construction in the background.

Recently someone has spray-painted RIP on the crypt door. It's really annoying.

[thesparks]

Well we went down there today myself and my two 7yr old sons and it is as everyone says quite awesome and creepy ,

not a trip for everyone as the embankment is rather steep but if you can make it it is a sight to see.

The only drawback is my kids probably wont be able to sleep tonight...it scared the crap out of them...lol

We highly recommend it not only is it a ghost trek but a historical one to boot we will surely go back...enjoy the updated pics...

[little frau]

Thanks for the new photos. I would have expected more debris down there. Perhaps it's been washed away by all the rain lately.

I have a question now: From the newspaper clips posted by sevfiv it would seem that there were 4 people killed by unexploded bombs.

However, after reading the article by Louis Aulbach posted here in Dec 2007 ( by wendyps), I believe that someone, whoever wrote the "Bottle Neck" cleaning article, was mixing information. Either that, or Louis Aulbach was unaware of any children that Thurston John Donnellan lost to a similar accident that took the life of Thurston's older brother Henry.

The following is from Louis Aulbach's piece:

Timothy Donnellan, the father and one of the early Houston settlers, died in 1849 and was buried in a vault on the "south bank of Buffalo Bayou at the west end of Franklin" according to Aulbach.

Henry Donnellan, first born son of Timothy was born in 1838 in New Orleans.

Thurston (Thuse) Donnellan, last born son of Timothy was born in 1845 in Houston. Second son Benjamin had apparently died young.

In February 1867, Henry Donnellan and his business partner A.C. Richer were playing with an unexploded bomb when it detonated, blowing off Richer's arms and legs and seriously wounding Donnellan. Both men later died and Henry was buried in the vault with his father.

In 1875 Thurston Donnellan married Jessamine Hawthorne. In Aulbach's article there is no mention of their having any children.

Thurston Donnellan died in 1908. Jessamine Donnellan died in a Houston hospital in 1937.

Aulbach does state that in December 1901, the Donnellan family remains were removed from the vault by Wall and Stabe Undertakers and re-interred in Glenwood Cemetery although he does not provide a reference to the information source.

The second newspaper article in post #41 says that two young boys, sons of Thuse Donolon (sic) were killed while playing with an unexploded bomb. I'd have thought that there would be something in that newspaper article about the same type accidental death of Thuse's older brother Henry.

Of course, maybe Louis Aulbach got it all wrong.

[neuman]

Does anybody REALLY believe that a crypt from 1849 was left in place when the bridge was constructed in 1907? Even if this was not a part of the brewery (which I still believe that it was) every building in this area had a basement that this could have been a part of. The "fact" that a majority was on the downstream edge of the modern bridge is not proof that this was not part of the brewery. The 1907 bridge was built by the brewery and included part of the building. The "balcony" of old Power Tools (I know that I'm dating myself with that!) is part of the brewery and built into the bridge under street level.

Finally, if anyone has ever seen a brick from the 1840's, they look nothing like those that construct this supposed crypt.

[kylejack]

Well, it does seem to be the right location. The family sued the city for desecrating the tomb while building Franklin and won the costs to re-inter the bodies elsewhere.