Complex sentence: Antebellum Velasco had business houses, homes, a hotel, boardinghouses, wharves, and a customhouse; riverboats embarked from the wharves for Galveston and New Orleans.
Split into simpler sentences: Antebellum Velasco had business houses, homes, a hotel, boardinghouses, wharves, and a customhouse. Riverboats embarked from the wharves for Galveston and New Orleans.