The Buccaneer Hotel was built by W. L. Moody, Jr. in 1929. It was one of the first hotels built to cater Galveston's growing year-round tourism industry.  In its heyday this 440 room structure served as a beach front social center for Galvestonians.  Today it is no more.  On January 1st 1999, at 12 pm, the Buccaneer was imploded using 250 pounds of dynamite.

The Buccaneer closed in 1961, months after CBS Newsman Dan Rather gave his now infamous live reports from inside the hotel during Hurricane Carla.  In 1962 the Moody Foundation gave the hotel to the Methodist Church, who in turn ran it as Moody House: Edgewater Retirement Home.   In the late summer of 1998 construction on a new Moody House (located directly behind the Buccaneer in this photo) was completed and the Buccaneer was vacated.  In keeping with ties to the Moody family, the new building was financed through the Moody-owned, American National Insurance Company.

It is important to note that the Galveston Historical Foundation, nationally known for their extensive efforts in preserving buildings of historical significance in Galveston, made very little effort to try to save this structure...and instead stood idly by while they allowed this magnificent building, with its extravagant ballroom and intricate woodwork, come crashing down.