Two generations of Galveston’s Rapp family have left their architectural marks on the island, including the design of some of the city’s most recognizable structures. 

Well-known Galveston architect Raymond Rudolf Rapp, Sr. (1896-1959), the son of a carpenter, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, where he went to parochial school and worked as a clerk in a hardware store. He then attended Saint Xavier’s College and the University of St. Louis where he studied architectural design while working as a draftsman for the architectural firm of Gray & Wischmeyer. 

He moved to Houston in 1918 and obtained a job as a draftsman for architect A. C. Finn, who later played a major role in the extension of Houston’s skyline as the principal architect for Houston’s Jesse Jones. 

In 1919, Rapp worked as an inspector for the United States Engineering Department, assigned to the design of several concrete foundations and abutments for local forts and the harbor. 

That September he married Galvestonian Edith Reybaud (1897-1987) and they moved into a home at 1810 Avenue K, where they raised a family of four sons.

 Rapp opened his own architectural firm on the island in 1921, and was soon accepting commissions for educational, residential, and religious buildings, involving new construction and remodeling existing structures. 

 

 Among his firm’s first clients was lawyer Jules Damiani, who hired Rapp to design a family home for him at 1527 Broadway.

 Rapp soon became the go to architect on the island and during 1924 alone, the firm garnered over a quarter of a million dollars in business.

 One of his most recognizable projects is the 1928 Eiband House at 3112 Broadway. The brick Colonial Revival home, designed for Joseph and Edith Eiband, is one of the last prominent homes built on the avenue after it was declared a state highway. 

The Hebrew Orthodox Benevolent Association and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Galveston hired Rapp to design a two-story Moorish Revival brick synagogue for the newly founded Congregation Beth Jacob in 1931. The structure at 2401 Avenue K was completed in 1932.

 The fourth-degree Mason was active in the community as well, and in writing the first zoning ordinances for Galveston in 1937. 

 

He and his firm completed over 1,400 projects on the island, including homes of prominent Galvestonians such as A. J. Dowl, Wilbur Goodman, Rose Maceo, Maco Stewart, J. B. Ormond, Bowden Atherton, Julian Levy, Jack Miller, and Fred Hartel. 

He is also remembered for designing nightclubs like the Hollywood Dinner Club, the Grotto (later called the Sui Jin, and then the Balinese Room), the Turf, and more. Among his designs whose exteriors are still admired today are the 1930 Malloy Funeral Home on Broadway, and the ultra-modern 1940 Sears, Roebuck and Company building at 23rd Street and Broadway. 

After completing one year of college, Rapp’s oldest son and namesake, Raymond Rapp, Jr. (1920-2004), enlisted as a captain in the U.S. Army in June 1941 and was stationed at Fort Bliss. He later returned to the island, and married Anna Helene Brynston (1921-2003), the daughter of a Swedish immigrant living in Galveston, in the summer of 1943. 

During the younger Rapp’s absence, his father had designed the 1944 Galveston Municipal Pleasure Pier, a four-block-long pier with a collection of simple buildings including a ballroom, 2,000-seat outdoor theatre, openair aquarium, snack bar, concessions, and fishing pier. It is the same pier that serves as home to today’s Pleasure Pier attraction. 

In 1947, Raymond Jr. joined his father’s firm as an apprentice and office manager. When Raymond Rapp, Sr. passed away in 1959 a longtime family friend named Preston Gehren reviewed and signed plans as the firm’s registered architect until Raymond Jr., who had been working with his father, could become licensed.  

After earning his license, the following year, he became the firm’s sole owner. He renamed it as Raymond R. Rapp & Associates in 1963.

 

 In 1966, Rapp collaborated with the firm of Ben J. Koten & Associates to design Galveston’s new county courthouse at 21st Street and Ball, which replaced the 1898 courthouse damaged by Hurricane Carla.

 It was one of several of his projects that are still debated in the community, due to discussions of the merits of new construction versus the viability of maintaining historic architecture. 

Among his many restorations and renovations were work at Sacred Heart Church and Rosenberg Library. By 1971, the firm had added Gerald Tackett and Ronald Fash as general partners and opened an office in Houston. Rapp eventually served as chairman of the Galveston City Planning Committee. 

After being involved in nearly 1,400 projects in the Galveston-Houston Area, Rapp became a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1982. 

He passed away at the age of 84 in 2004, but his work is still the subject of admiration, discussion, and sometimes debate today.