Mayor Sam Brashear appointed Houston’s first park committee to oversee the establishment of a city park in 1899. The 10 acres chosen came to be called Sam Houston Park. It was landscaped into a Victorian wonderland, with footpaths laid out to pass by an old mill and cross a rustic bridge over a pleasant stream.
Sam Houston Park is a proud oasis of living history and wide-open greenness amid modern monuments to corporate and civic institutions. The park is surrounded by the skyscrapers and freeways that typify twenty-first century urban life and is only a short walk from downtown Houston's City Hall.
By the 1950s, Houston was a much different city, and boom times meant that many fine old buildings from more genteel eras were being demolished to make way for a new modernity and burgeoning commercial affluence. The threat to demolish a century-old house in Sam Houston Park brought together a group of Houstonians dedicated to saving tangible connections to the vanishing past--resulting in founding of the Heritage Society in 1954. Their efforts to save the Kellum-Noble House were successful, and the Society turned to other historical preservation projects.
Special Features:
Sam Houston Parks includes a small pond with fountain, wetland garden, gazebo, trail/walkways, neuhaus garden, Houston Armillary Sphere Sculpture and USS Houston Memorial Sculpture.
Heritage Society Homes:
The park and the museum are open to the public, but tours of the historic buildings must be arranged through the Heritage Society. Some of the historic homes include The Old Place (1823), Pilot House (1868), San Felipe Cottage (1868), Staiti House (1905), Yates House (1870), Kellum Noble House (1847), St. John Church (1891), Nichols-Rice-Cherry House (1850). For information on hours and fees, call 713-655-1912 or e-mail emartin@heritagesociety.org.
Amenities:
* Benches
* Trash Receptacles
* Drinking Fountains
Size:
19.70 acres