The cedar deck of Gibbs Cottage 5 looking across the common green to the palms planted in 1950, with neighbouring restored cottages beyond

340 N Alister St · Old Town Port Aransas

The Gibbs Cottages: eight fishing cabins from 1937, kept on the island.

A row of hand-built Old Town cottages, worn down by Harvey and close to being cleared, restored board by board and sold one at a time so the site can never be bought up and levelled as a single lot.

Start a Project Then and today

Type: Historic restoration
Location: 340 N Alister St, Old Town
Built: 1937–1954
Restored: 2021–2023, in phases
Cottages: 8, about 400–490 sq ft
From our office: 0.5 mile

What it was

A fishing camp that became part of the town.

Frank Gibbs came to Port Aransas on a fishing trip in 1936 and stayed. He bought the Alister Street lot at a sheriff’s auction, moved here in June 1937, and over the next seventeen years built the cottages by hand: plain fishing cabins with no air conditioning, camp stoves and cast-iron pans, let to anglers by the night. The palms in the middle of the property went in in 1950. The family’s own two-storey house followed in 1953, framed in reclaimed wood.

For most of a century the Gibbs Cottages were among the first places a visitor to the island stayed. By 2021 they were, in Carl’s words to the local paper, “hanging on by a thread.” Harvey had done its damage in 2017, the floors sat low in the flood plain, and the walls carried decades of patching.

The lot was the bigger risk. Run as one property at today’s land values, it would sooner or later meet the arithmetic that clears an Old Town lot for something new.

Sepia photograph of a row of small white cottages along a sandy street, before the palms grew in — The row from Alister Street, and the family house in frame in the early 1950s. Family archive.

Old photograph of a two-storey timber frame going up beside a parked car of the period — The row from Alister Street, and the family house in frame in the early 1950s. Family archive.

Carl Moore — Carl “Corky” Moore · to the Port Aransas South Jetty, October 2023

Then & today

The same entry, the same star.

Gibbs Cottage 5 in an early black-and-white photograph: board walls, a small entry hood with a star, striped awnings and a picket fence — Gibbs Cottage 5 · N Alister Street, Old Town · family archive photograph and 2023 photograph

Gibbs Cottage 5 today: the same entry hood and star, white board-and-batten walls, blue window trim and a cedar deck screen — Gibbs Cottage 5 · N Alister Street, Old Town · family archive photograph and 2023 photograph

What we did

Keep what works. Rebuild what failed.

Kept the footprint and the layoutEach cottage stands where it always stood, with its original rooms. The foundation and roof systems stayed, and the kitchens kept their original sinks.
Took the wood down and put it backThe interior boards came off the walls, were re-cut, and went back up as ceilings, floors, trim and window casings. The warm pine overhead in every cottage is the cottage’s own.
Lifted every cottage about four feetTo meet the city’s code and bring the floors up out of the flood plain. The short stair to each deck is the new floor line.
Rebuilt what had failedNew structural framing, wiring, air conditioning and water heaters, and bathrooms made slightly larger. Everything else kept its size.
A new skin, in the old patternConcrete-board siding laid as white board-and-batten, blue-trimmed windows, and new cedar decks behind horizontal slat screens.
Sold them one at a timeThe cottages were sold individually, locals first. A developer would have to buy out every owner before the site could ever be cleared as one lot.

Timeline

Eighty-six years, and two and a half of work.

1937–1954

Frank Gibbs builds the cottages
By hand, one at a time, for anglers. The palms go in in 1950 and the family house in 1953.
Aug 2017

Harvey
The storm adds its damage to decades of patching. The cottages sit low, untied and in the flood plain.
Mar 2021

The restoration begins
Each cottage opened up and photographed before anything is touched; wood taken down and set aside to be re-cut.
2021–2023

Raised, reframed, re-wired
Cottages lifted about four feet, failed framing replaced, new wiring, air conditioning, water heaters and slightly larger bathrooms.
Sep 2023

Exteriors complete
Board-and-batten siding, blue window trim, cedar decks and slat screens along Alister Street; the green replanted around the 1950 palms.
Oct 2023

Finished, and offered one by one
Shelves and fittings go in, and the cottages are offered for sale individually, locals first.
Jul 2025

From the air
Eight cottages and the family house around the green, a short walk from the harbour.

The eight

One row, eight owners.

Cottage 1

Gibbs Cottage 1

Plank ceiling and the original sink

Cottage 2

Gibbs Cottage 2

Ceiling and floors from its own boards

Cottage 3

Gibbs Cottage 3

406 sq ft · deck to the green

Cottage 5

Gibbs Cottage 5

The star on the gable

Cottage 6

Gibbs Cottage 6

Behind its cedar screen

Cottage 7

Gibbs Cottage 7

396 sq ft · one bedroom

Cottage 8

Gibbs Cottage 8

The longest deck on the property

Cottage 9

Gibbs Cottage 9

486 sq ft · sleeps six

Inside

Still feels like 1937 from the doorway.

Empty cottage room with a pine plank ceiling, pine floor, white board walls and a barn-track door — Its own boards, re-cut, on the ceiling and floor

Small cottage kitchen with a white drainboard sink on open shelving and a hex-tile floor — The original sink

Cottage bedroom with stained wood window casings and a pine floor — Reclaimed casings, new windows

White cottage bathroom with a tiled walk-in shower and a wall sink under a plank ceiling — Bathrooms, slightly larger

A furnished cottage kitchen and living space with a navy island — Lived in

Aerial view of Old Town Port Aransas with the cottage site outlined among the streets — Old Town, from above

A cedar deck looking across the green to the palms — The green and the 1950 palms

Questions

About the cottages.

What people ask when they see them on Alister Street.

At 340 N Alister Street in Old Town Port Aransas, half a mile from our office on W Avenue C and a short walk from the harbour.

Because the structure and the wood were worth keeping, and because the cottages are part of the town. The foundations and roofs could stay, the interior wood could be re-cut and reused, and what had failed could be rebuilt to today’s code. A new building would have been easier; it would not have been the Gibbs Cottages.

Yes, each one by about four feet, to meet the city’s code and bring the floors up out of the flood plain. In a restoration, the cost of the work against the value of the building decides whether raising is required; here it was the right thing to do either way.

Often, yes. We start at the building, open up what needs opening and tell you what we found before we tell you what it costs. Some buildings cannot carry a restoration; you will hear that in the first conversation, with the reasons.

More of our work