S1.02 Tour the Amazing League-Kempner House in Galveston

This once abandoned Victorian mansion is undergoing a massive restoration and will soon be opened to the public for tours. Designed by noted architect Nicholas Clayton, this Galveston historical treasure is slowly back to life. Restoration of this historic house is not easy, and the extensive yard and gardens add to the complexity and expense. As a historic house museum, preservation of the original features is high on the priority list. Follow the journey from start to finish. It’s a tough, hot, sweaty and very expensive road but worth every minute of it. We hope you can come visit in person someday but until then, please consider supporting the restoration efforts by subscribing to this channel and liking these videos. It helps get the word out
www.leaguekemp...
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook - LeagueKempnerHouse

[@45035]

Outstanding shipmate. Press on. USS Kitty Hawk CV-63. Jan 1980 to July 1983. WE were not able to save the USS Kitty Hawk from the scrap yard but thank GOD for people like you for saving this house. I see restoration projects all over Galveston. That is a good thing.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

We are trying our best. It is so sad to lose these historic structures.

[@TheValhallaVentures]

So awesome to see you making the moves to save this amazing building for everyone else to enjoy!!

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

I'm trying. I'm starting to fix and move the videos over this weekend. My goal is to do one a day until all 70 get shifted. Then the hard work of getting viewership back. Thanks for being the first to watch!!!! It's a process.

[@TheValhallaVentures]

@@leaguekempnerhouse Its never fun going back to clean up but its going to be worth it. Your plans and efforts will certainly be rewarded. I shared a link to this new page on my business pages. I'll link your new channel with my video too!

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

@@TheValhallaVentures Thanks.

[@paisleypeach44]

Yes please open it to public. Many would happily pay to see it and keep it up.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

We are open to the public now. The house was transferred to a nonprofit so it could be opened to the public for tours. It helps us raise money for the restoration.

[@rentmydust]

I could watch this video over and over again!!

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

The house has come a long way. I can't believe in one month it will be two years.

[@laurenblake9633]

Can't wait to see this beautiful gem in person.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

We would love to have you come tour!

[@sc3credheart]

Over 10 years ago my father was friends of the previous owners. They didn't maintain it. My stepfather lived there was the maintenance guy basically. I have footage and photographic proof. I have a deep love for this house and victorian+rococo history. Thankful it’s in the hands of the right people now. I know their family was related to Florence lol.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

How nice for you to have a connection to the house. We would love to get copies of any photos you have. We are trying to document as much of the house's history as possible. I have seen a picture of Florence Welch on the porch of the house online. That's a fun connection.

[@sc3credheart]

Thank you for responding and sharing with me. I do so appreciate it. I’d love to get your email and be in touch. I remember the previous owners had 3 scary mask near the bath room under the staircase near the kitchen. I was a little girl maybe my memory is distorted. The stained glass above the grand staircase, sadly had holes as well as cracks. Excuse my grammar errors in the previous comment. Once again, thank you for taking care of it.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

@@sc3credheart You can reach us anytime at [e-mail] Please stay in touch. We would love for you to see what's going on at the house now.

[@mariaarmstrong7996]

So happy to see this!

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

It is a great house but it needs an awful lot of work to survive.

[@debbienutt5339]

Thank you so much! I’ve been coming to Galveston since I was a child, always interested in the architecture. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Galveston has so many wonderful old homes. We are so honored to be saving this one for future generations.

[@mistervacation23]

Dame Mae Fishman was a famous silent film actress who became famous alongside Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand. After retiring, she lived a quiet life in Los Angeles, but she often visited the Kemper house in Galveston

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Oh wow! I'll have to look her up. The Kempners were movers and shakers in Galveston!

[@Kalissa313]

Hi there I’m here following a recommendation by Mike at 4th generation renovation channel. A bit late to the party but I am looking forward to binge watching your videos. The house is amazingly grand and I cannot wait to learn more about it. The stained glass windows are breathtaking. Cheers from Australia

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Welcome. We just love Mike. There is nothing he can't do. I hope you enjoy taking this journey with us.

[@lkbarrett39]

I found your new channel! I was in town for jury duty today, so I drove by. I didn't realize this house is in line with the other famous mansions. And all the beautiful homes behind you, some of them also in need of some attention!

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Galveston has so many great houses of all sizes and types. The ones in bad shape always distress me but it is a constant battle in this climate to keep up the outsides.

[@carolmitchell6527]

Wow. That's going to be a big project.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

That's an understatement.

[@Burbankelly]

Amazing! Thanks for the great tour and for saving this gem!

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@judithanderson6132]

Glad to find the new channel.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

I am transitioning to this channel and phasing out the other one. The old one is in my name so it complicates the nonprofit fundraising (lots of rules on KZbin). This channel is set up by the nonprofit and will be the permanent home for all the videos at some point in the future. It's giving me an opportunity to clean up my earlier videos and add some additional information. I'll announce something on the other channel once I get to the point where new videos will be posted here.

[@craiggillett5985]

I can’t believe I missed this, I’d been wishing there was a tour. Thank-you

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

This is a new channel I'm setting up to get everything established in the nonprofits name and off of my personal account. I'm using the effort to clean up all the existing videos and put them here over the next month or so. Soon, all the new content will only be posted here. I'm also numbering them in order and putting them on a playlist from the beginning so if you need to scan and get caught up on anything, this is the place to do it!

[@craiggillett5985]

@@leaguekempnerhouse ahhh makes sense.TBH I hadn’t noticed it was a new channel, but I’ve now subscribed ready for the dross over

[@rentmydust]

You have another channel!!! Yay!! I can tell you've been cleaning. You are such an incredible worker. As always, can't wait to see more 😎

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Thanks so much! 😊 This channel is in the nonprofit's name so it will eventually be where all new videos get posted. I have to get to 1000 subscribers before it gets monetized by youtube but it happen once I start publicizing.. I hope you are doing well. No more health scares.

[@mrs.waltman549]

We finally got to go inside today. It’s amazing! Still in renovations, but you can see the former and future beauty

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

We are so happy you could come by. Thanks for the support.

[@xXNitemareXx]

I am so jealous of that butlers pantry!! My husband and I have a dream of owning a Victorian style home someday, and we have subscribed to many "for sale" sites. I've seen many a beautiful home that has every original amenity you could want with subtle modern convenience, except for the original butlers pantry. Those are usually substituted for more kitchen space to house modern appliances or make the kitchen more spacious, or even for a laundry room. The beautiful floor to ceiling display cabinets for dishes and enclosed goods cabinets are ripped out and disposed of, and it just breaks my heart. My only requirements of a dream home is for the foundation and bones to be structurally sound, the electric and plumbing to be safe and operational, and for it to have an original, unmodified butlers pantry, but I realize after seeing your progress these past 2 years, I'M ASKING FOR TOO MUCH!! 😅😭🤣

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

You're not asking for too much. Your perfect house is out there somewhere. Look how long it took me to find mine. I do love the butler's pantry. I love china and glassware. Now I have someplace to put it.

[@lisaknell1809]

That purple bathroom!! 😮😮❤❤

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

I know. I've never seen anything quite like it.

[@paisleypeach44]

Or a high end bed and breakfast. That way someone is always there. Never left empty.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

We are going to have two apartments in the ground floor basement for some extra income and security on the property. We worry about vandals.

[@angelaprovencher7150]

Let others know about the new channel on the old channel. Why the new channel?

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

I'm going to do that when I get a few more videos posted here. KZbin won't let you post the same video twice so I'm taking the opportunity to edit some of the earlier ones and clean them up a little and replace the League House with The League-Kempner House. The original channel is in my name so the income comes to me and is taxable so 20 to 30% of it goes straight to paying taxes. This new channel is in the nonprofit name so the revenue will go directly there tax free. It will be a bit of a transition because I will have to try to convert all the old subscribers and reach the required KZbin milestones to start earning again but in the long run it will be much better for the nonprofit. We are about to start doing some publicity to drive people to the new channel and once thngs are transitioned, all the new videos will be posted here. I'm glad you found it on your own. It is taking so much work to get this nonprofit up and running.

[@xXNitemareXx]

Janie, if I could make a couple of suggestions... I'm not very KZbin "creator literate", but I noticed your view count doesn't match your subscriber count on this new page. I just watched your latest video with your sister (you guys could pass for fraternal twins, I swear!) and I had to manually search for the new channel, which was a little challenging even for this seasoned user! I know at the end of the videos you can add clickable links to other videos, but can you add links to other channels videos? I don't know, but I think that could be helpful. I've also seen where other KZbinrs have placed clickable links to other channels in their videos, but it's like a little grey title box that appears in the corner. My suggestion is to add links in a video on the old channel to help people navigate here. Also, for a point of reference, look at a short video on the channel "Popcorned Planet". When the host asks people to like and subscribe to his channel, he actually shows the viewer how to do it while he's asking people to join. Maybe you could do something similar to that, but for the new channel. The host also does it in every video towards the end so that new viewers are shown what to do. I'm not saying you have to be annoying about it (it does get old seeing it in every video to some people, I personally don't mind) but maybe just something like that every now and then to remind viewers to subscribe visually as well as audibly. Some people's brains just work best when they have a visual aid too. Also, thinking of what the average age of your viewers might be, there might be a slight challenge in navigating this site, so it could help those who are inexperienced in navigating the site. I'm sure your target viewership isn't a bunch of teenagers who know how to do all these things intuitively. Or if nothing else, change all your video descriptions on the old channel to include a brief summary of the change-over to this channel with a link and appeal to viewers to please subscribe here. I want to see you hit your mark so you can become monetized here sooner rather than later. I hope my suggestions are helpful! Good luck with the non-profit!!

[@xXNitemareXx]

Oh, another thing... do you have a PayPal or CashApp account set up for this channel or the non-profit yet? You should advertise those in your videos as well. Venture out into KZbin land and see what the other larger creators do. I could suggest some channels that use third-party services for reference if you would like. 😊

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

@@xXNitemareXx Sorry for the very, very tardy reply. I just learned how get notices of replies to my reply so I'm playing catch up. Your suggestions are all grate. I have been working on getting more people to transition. I did add the end screens as you suggested that can be clicked to take a viewer to the new channel. I also added the link to the new channel as the first line in the description. I am also trying to make short 2 to 3 minute videos for the old channel urging people to head over to the new channel everytime we have a new video go up on the new channel. It is slowly working. The subscriber cound is still less than half of what the old channel was but our watch time is about the same so I think the people who consistently watched the videos moved. We did get monitized and have started some traditional publicity pushes in print and digital media to help spread the word now that the new channel is up and running. Our last video got pushed out by KZbin and we had 5,700 view in the first three days which is great. If you have any other suggestions or specific things you'd like to see in the videos please let me know. I really appreciate you taking the time to offer ways to improve what we are doing. This has been a steep learning curve for me and sometimes it's hard to keep up.

[@dragonlove1]

Beautiful house

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Thank you 😊

[@stevehaynes7516]

I saw $1.02 tour.😀

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Hey. I could use $1.02 right about now. With inflation maybe it will go up to $2.06

[@gb2530_CA]

💖💖💖💖🏘

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

Thanks for taking the tour. It's a great house and it has come a long way in the last three years.

[@chadsimmons6347]

Restoration back to 1905? The old place deserves modern plumbing, wiring & HVAC,,the past was miserably HOT!

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

We are getting all new electrical, plumbing and HVAC. The present is miserably hot, too!😉

[@JamesPollMaine59]

Can you explain how you went about getting a 501c3? Do you have to have board? Do you maintain control?

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

I had to incorporate as a nonprofit at the state level and then file with the IRS to get tax exempt status as a 501c3. We have a board, and I am the president. The bylaws have founder's protections in place so that I can only be removed for cause. There are only two other people on the board right now. The goal is to move away from this model as we get more organized and expand the board and remove the protections so that the nonprofit will have a life of its own apart from me. Because I'm still financing all the work until we get fundraising underway, I didn't want to risk not having some level of control for a while.

[@JamesPollMaine59]

@@leaguekempnerhouse well explained. I’m fearful of loosing my investment if somehow things get heated with a board. My fear is what is the interpretation of “just cause?” Worst case scenario, you put all that money into your home, and you no longer have the ability to make your own decisions or perhaps even have the right to reside in your home.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

@James Pollowitz I feel very comfortable with the board we have right now. With the nonprofit, it will never be my house but I am still very interested in controlling how the restoration is done.. sort of my vision for the future.

[@paisleypeach44]

Open it to wedding s. People pay a lot for a venue.

[@leaguekempnerhouse]

We hope to someday. It would be a great house for a small wedding. The yard is fabulous, too.