Downtown

     Downtown Houston is the heart of Houston and one of the most interesting parts of the city. It has maintained a mix of buildings from the early 1900s and brand new skyscrapers. Buildings like 609 Main merge nicely with the small brick apartments, giving the area a vibe of a city that is modern while valuing their history. Downtown Houston is a center for business and has been since it's founding. In 1836, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen promoted what they described as perfect and what would be a city of commerce and business, which it is. However these advertising points were just hopes for Houston, and not a guarantee.

     We started the day out by heading to the Houston Public Library, where we met our tour guide, Betty Chapman. We started the tour by talking about the architecture downtown and the history of the buildings that you wouldn't usually notice. Many of the buildings that are just regular hotels or clothes stores have very rich histories and are very fortunate to be maintained.

We spent most of our time walking North on Main Street, which has many beautiful original buildings from the historical Houston downtown.

     Northern main street is mostly comprised of classic Houston buildings that are still being used today mostly as bars and restaurants. I think that this is a good use of the buildings as it gives downtown more night life which is crucial to having a community which feels alive.
We continued our tour, passing by the Islamic Da'wah center and eventually making our way down to Buffalo Bayou, which was the main selling point that the Allen Brothers used. They advertised that the Buffalo and other bayous were large rivers, large enough for large ships, and what would make Houston rich.
     Some of that is true, the Houston ship channel is an enormous economic force. But at the time the ship channel was nothing like it is now. But people came, and Houston began slowly growing. At the time, Houston was very small, and insignificant compared to Galveston, which was a major city and the biggest city in Texas. However, after the Hurricane of 1900 wiped out almost the entire city, people moved inland to the city of Houston. Houston then began dredging the ship channel in a massive project to establish Houston as a huge port and soon the biggest city in Texas.