History of Hotel Lucine
Before Hotel Lucine became a place for sunset cocktails, live music, and barefoot mornings by the Gulf, it was a leader in the generation of mid century modern hotels built in Galveston. In the early 1960s, when family vacations were planned on paper maps and summer meant piling into the car and heading south, Treasure Isle Motel rose at the corner of 10th and Seawall Boulevard as a shimmering invitation — a pool, a palm tree, and a room just steps from the Gulf. Designed by brothers Ben and Sol Kotin, who served as both architects and real estate developers, the building featured a dramatic carport, zig‑zag rooflines, and courtyard pool framed by open-air corridors.
Treasure Isle arrived at a moment when Galveston was reinventing itself as a postwar vacation destination. After Hurricane Carla reshaped the beachfront in 1961, a new generation of motels rose along the Seawall, replacing scattered tourist courts with sleek, two‑story retreats. But time was not kind to most of them. As high‑rise hotels and condominiums took over the shoreline, familiar names vanished — Sandpiper, Seahorse, Driftwood, Flagship — leaving only a handful of survivors. Treasure Isle endured, adapting through changing owners, shifting travel tastes, and decades of wear, eventually reemerging in the early 2000s under the name Pearl Inn. Today, Hotel Lucine is the oldest remaining motel from this generation of hotels built along the seawall in the 1960’s.
Despite alterations over the years, the bones of the original hotel remain remarkably intact: the U‑shaped plan, the courtyard and pool, the outdoor walkways still framing views of the Gulf. It is now the oldest and best‑preserved postwar hotel left on Galveston’s beachfront — a rare architectural time capsule from an era when the journey mattered as much as the destination.
What started as a roadside refuge for sun‑seeking families has become a modern retreat rooted deeply in Galveston’s history. Travelers still remember road trips, honeymooners, and summer crowds. And just as it did in 1963, this corner of the Seawall still invites travelers to pull in, slow down, and fall in love with the coast all over again. Today, Hotel Lucine carries that legacy forward — blending mid‑century soul with modern comfort, delicious locally sourced fare, music, design, and community.