Allen's Landing is sometimes called "Houston's Plymouth Rock," and with good reason: It is the spot where the city's founders, Augustus and John Kirby Allen, are said to have set foot on the land that would become Houston. Allen's Landing became the original site of the Port of Houston in 1840 and for many years […]
Preservation Houston's 90-minute, docent-guided walking tour looks at Buffalo Bayou's crucial role in Houston's development. The tour route from Allen's Landing to Market Square includes surviving remnants of the historic waterfront, including existing portions of the once-massive Houston Ice & Brewing Company complex, sites related to Houston's role in the Civil War and the area […]
The Rice University campus is one of the most beautiful places in Houston thanks to the Mediterranean-influenced designs of Boston architects Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, who were responsible for the university's earliest buildings. Our 90-minute, docent-guided walking tour circles the campus, exploring the history of the university itself, the story and murder of its founder […]
Preservation Houston's 90-minute docent-guided tour will explore the history and architecture of First Montrose Commons as well as the story of how the neighborhood weathered challenges ranging from postwar decline to the wholesale demolition that made way for construction of the Spur 527 freeway. Along the way, you'll see the work of prolific homebuilders Russell […]
As large as it is, Houston shares a feature with dozens of small towns across Texas: a courthouse square. On Sunday evening, June 16, we'll take a look at the history and architecture of the neighborhood surrounding the Harris County Courthouse — one of Houston's most historic areas. The 90-minute, docent-guided walking tour will feature […]
The story of Turner Addition began in 1871 when Nathaniel P. Turner platted the neighborhood more than two miles outside the Houston city limit, apparently anticipating that the city's growth would soon fill the gap between his subdivision and civilization. As it turned out, development in Turner Addition didn't begin until the late 1910s, when […]
Market Square, one of the public squares laid out in the Allen brothers' original plan of Houston, was home to the city market and City Hall from 1841 to 1939. During that time, the square became the center of Houston's early commercial district. Although the area declined in the mid-20th century, preservation projects have brought […]
The William A. Wilson Realty Co. began developing Woodland Heights in 1907 on 136 acres of land that was once part of John Austin's Mexican land grant. The neighborhood was one of Houston's first "streetcar suburbs" — a streetcar line ran from downtown along Houston Avenue to just outside the Woodland Heights gates, enabling working-class […]
The area now known as Midtown originally developed as farmland on the outskirts of Houston, then was transformed into the upscale South End residential district as the city expanded to the south around the turn of the 20th century. Over the years, South End residents moved to newer suburban neighborhoods and their grand homes were […]
Join Throughline at Glenwood Cemetery on Saturday, October 26 from 2-4pm for a historical tour with Preservation Houston. Led in conjunction with Throughline's current exhibition, "Folded Time", we will discover evolving artistic styles and diverse social and personal influences reflected in some of Glenwood’s most striking monuments.
"Houston's University" was founded in 1927 as a night school meeting in borrowed rooms, but it quickly grew into a four-year university and is now a major urban research institution. Our 90-minute docent-guided tour of the UH campus traces the university's history and the people who made the school what it is today, including oilman […]
