Join us for a virtual preview of Preservation Houston’s exciting new travel program, PH Travels: Philadelphia, which we're launching in September 2025. This free program offers a first look at our inaugural group travel experience, exclusively for Preservation Houston members.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

When landscape architects Hare & Hare drew up plans for Houston's civic center in the late 1920s, they envisioned a group of stylistically similar Spanish-influenced buildings arranged around a public square. However, those plans were derailed by the Depression, and the city's governmental and cultural center ended up developing over the next 50 years in a variety of styles with few overall planning efforts. Today, structures in the Civic Center and the adjacent Theater District reflect not only the evolution of Houston's municipal and cultural institutions, but also changing architectural tastes.

Join us for an evening of festive cheer at Preservation Houston's Holiday Party on Tuesday evening, December 10! We'll gather at Fire Station No. 2, a beautifully restored 1910 firehouse and 2017 Good Brick Award winner that's at the heart of an exciting revitalization of its East End neighborhood. It's the perfect setting to celebrate the season and the spirit of preservation.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

This two-hour walking tour traces the changing tastes and the varied social and personal motivations reflected in some of Glenwood's outstanding monuments, which range from elaborate Victorian obelisks and angels to crisp, modern compositions. Along the way, docents will explain the symbolism and stories behind the monuments and will discuss the lives of Houstonians both famous and forgotten who commissioned them.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

"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 Hugh Roy Cullen, its great benefactor.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

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 demolished to make way for office and retail buildings, apartments and parking lots.

The Eldorado Ballroom has been a fixture in Houston's Third Ward since 1939. Prominent Black businesspeople and philanthropists Anna and Clarence Dupree built the nightclub to be a showplace for blue-chip entertainers including Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown — but the Eldorado was more than a famous nightspot. The so-called "Home of Happy Feet" hosted generations of Houstonians at dances, talent shows and dinners, and was a vital part of the Third Ward's civic and commercial life.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

Historic Glenwood Cemetery is known for its beauty, but the stories of the people buried there are just as compelling — especially Glenwood's women, whose legacies range from the suffrage movement to the silver screen. This tour tells the stories of some of those fascinating women and their impacts locally and nationally. Among the featured subjects are Charlotte Allen, the wife of Houston co-founder Augustus Allen; suffragists Annette Finnigan and Florence Sterling; publisher and stateswoman Oveta Culp Hobby, who led the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II; and movie star Gene Tierney.

We're holding a happy hour for Preservation Houston and Pier & Beam members Thursday evening, September 26, and we'd love to see you there! This informal gathering will be a great opportunity to unwind, catch up with fellow members and share our passion for preservation in a classic setting: West Alabama Ice House, a fixture in the Montrose area since 1928.

When planning began for a building to replace the office that had served historic Glenwood Cemetery since 1888, the goal was to design a structure that reflected modern sensibilities while respecting the cemetery’s 150-year heritage. The result was the Center for Glenwood, a 14,000-square-foot office, education and visitor center that opened in 2023. Join PH and architect Dillon Kyle at the Center on September 17 for a look into the process of designing a new landmark for one of Houston’s most historic places.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

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 Houstonians to live in a lovely wooded setting and easily commute to their jobs.

American architect Victor Lundy built his career on a deep understanding of material and form, crafting designs that range from gracefully soaring houses of worship to the rigidly geometric United States Tax Court Building in Washington, D.C. Lundy’s journey brought him to Houston, where he still resides, in 1976. Although he no longer lives in the remarkable home and studio he designed for himself and his wife, Anstis, our members have the exclusive opportunity to have a first look at this masterpiece Saturday morning, September 7, as it goes on the market.

Architect Victor Lundy’s long and varied career saw him produce striking, sculptural designs for homes, retail stores, churches and government buildings. Lundy was trained in the Beaux Arts and Bauhaus traditions, and though his work drew from both, his experimentation with material and form gave him a style all his own. Today, Lundy’s work is praised for its careful composition and timeless quality — and yet he remains one of the most underappreciated figures in modern American architecture.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

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 new uses to its historic buildings and new life to Market Square itself.

Join Preservation Houston Programs Director Jim Parsons for an illustrated virtual look at the Bayou City's history that explores the forces that have shaped its development and the stories of some of the people who helped turn a swampy village into one of America's largest and most dynamic cities. The Story of Houston is an engaging review of local history for newcomers and longtime Houstonians alike.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

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 an extension of Montrose Boulevard finally linked the area with the rest of Houston.

Preservation Houston members are invited to celebrate the organization’s work in the past year, welcome new leaders and mingle with friends during the 2024 Member Reception and Meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 18.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

As large as it is, Houston shares a feature with dozens of small towns across Texas: a courthouse square. On Sunday afternoon, May 19, 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.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

Glenwood Cemetery, established in 1871 on rolling, wooded land near Buffalo Bayou, is one of the most beautiful outdoor spaces in Houston. It is also the resting place of scores of people who built Houston into the city we know today — railroad executives, bankers, politicians and architects, among many others.

Preservation Houston has presented Good Brick Awards since 1979 to recognize outstanding historic preservation projects — and we’re inviting you to join us online at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, to learn more about this year’s Good Brick winners.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

What is now the First Montrose Commons Historic District includes two historic neighborhoods platted on what was then Houston’s southwestern edge: the Lockhart, Connor & Barziza Addition (1873) and the Bute Addition (1907). Construction in the area began in earnest after the adjacent Montrose Place neighborhood opened in 1911. Today, the streets of First Montrose Commons are lined with an eclectic mix of large and small homes and apartment buildings designed in a variety of 20th-century styles.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

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 and the development of Rice's signature architectural style.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

Although Glenwood Cemetery is known for its splendid Victorian monuments, there’s a more modern side as well. This docent-guided walking tour explores some of the newer sections of Glenwood and the lives of some of the well-known 20th century Houstonians buried there, including businessmen George and Herman Brown; cotton magnate and statesman Will Clayton; Edgar Odell Lovett, Rice University’s first president; Astrodome builder Judge Roy Hofheinz; and longtime television anchor Ron Stone.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston was teeming with activity at the turn of the 20th century, from the wharves of the Port of Houston at Allen's Landing to the produce wholesalers, warehouses, breweries and factories that lined the bayou’s banks. The scene is very different today, but remnants of the busy commercial district of a century ago are visible if you know where to look for them.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

Our 90-minute, docent-guided walking tour of the neighborhood tells the story of Allen's Landing and looks at historic buildings nearby, including turn-of-the-century warehouses, a former neighborhood saloon with a checkered past and the restored Willow Street Pump Station, the centerpiece of Houston's first sewer system. We'll also get a unique perspective on Allen's Landing as we walk across the historic Main Street Viaduct, one of the city's major public works projects of the 1910s.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

This two-hour walking tour traces the changing tastes and the varied social and personal motivations reflected in some of Glenwood's outstanding monuments, which range from elaborate Victorian obelisks and angels to crisp, modern compositions. Along the way, docents will explain the symbolism and stories behind the monuments and will discuss the lives of Houstonians both famous and forgotten who commissioned them.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

Montrose Place set a new standard for Houston’s suburban development when it opened in 1911. The neighborhood was the city’s first large-scale planned subdivision, with more than 1,000 lots and $1 million in improvements; its four principal boulevards quickly became some of the most fashionable addresses in town. This walking tour explores two of those boulevards — Lovett Boulevard and Audubon Place — and what they can tell us about early 20th-century suburban design in the Bayou City.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour.

This tour explores the changes in downtown Houston's skyline during the past 100 years through buildings like 806 Main, called "Carter's Folly" when it was completed in 1910 because some locals thought a 16-story building couldn't stand on its own, and Philip Johnson's groundbreaking Pennzoil Place, which set the stage for the postmodern skyline of the 1980s.

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

This two-hour, docent-guided tour looks at the lives and legacies of some of the men and women buried at Glenwood Cemetery who shaped Houston after the turn of the 20th century. They include oilmen R.L. Blaffer and Ross Sterling, who were among the founders of Humble Oil (later ExxonMobil), and Howard Hughes, the legendary billionaire whose family fortune was built on oilfield services.