HOUSTON Texas

Port city, seat (1836) of Harris county, Southeastern Texas, U.S., linked by the Houston Ship Channel to the Gulf of Mexico and the Intracoastal Waterway at Galveston, 51 mi (82 km) Southeast. The state's largest city, its skyscrapers rise from the unrelieved flat Gulf Coastal Plain (alt 41 ft [12 m]). The first settlement in the area, Harrisburg (1826), was destroyed in April 1836 by the Mexican general Santa Anna in pursuit of Sam Houston and the Texian Army. A week later outside the present city at the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was captured, and Texas was freed.

In August 1836 New York land speculators, the brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen, bought a site near burned-out Harrisburg and began advertising the place as the future "great interior commercial emporium of Texas." Two months later, John Allen persuaded the first Congress of the Republic of Texas, in session at Columbia, to move to his town, named for the first elected president, Sam Houston. The manoeuvre was later denounced, and the government stayed there only two years (1837-39). Mud-bogged and beset by yellow-fever epidemics, the town grew slowly as a cotton-shipping port; during the Civil War it became a haven for blockade runners. Briefly threatened in 1862 when Federal forces captured Galveston Island (which was soon recaptured by the Confederates), Houston, in 1863, became the headquarters for the Confederacy's Trans-Mississippi Department (Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona). The city developed as a rail centre, with 12 railways by 1891; and, after the Galveston hurricane and flood in 1900, it emerged as the state's leading port. The first dock was built in 1840, and widening and deepening of Buffalo Bayou (now part of the Houston Ship Channel) was begun in 1869. By the early 1980s the port, third largest in the U.S. in tonnage moved, was handling more than 80,000,000 tons of foreign, coastal, and canal shipping annually.

Oil, discovered in the area in 1901, brought considerable industrial development, triggering the city's expansion and prosperity. Houston is now a leading oil and petrochemical centre, the focal point for networks of natural gas pipelines, and an aerospace research and development centre. Immense resources of oil, natural gas, sulfur, lime, salt, and water have created one of the world's greatest concentrations of industries along the ship channel. Southeast near Clear Lake, 22 mi from the city's downtown area, is the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (1961), which is the command post for the flights by U.S. astronauts. The area around Houston is also important for rice, cotton, and cattle.

Among the many colleges and universities in the area are Rice University (1912), the University of Houston (1927), Houston Baptist University (1934), Texas Southern University (1947), and the University of St. Thomas (1947). The Texas Medical Center (organized 1945) is an immense complex of hospitals, medical schools (including the Baylor College of Medicine [1903]), and research institutions. Houston is one of the few U.S. cities having a professional symphony orchestra and resident professional companies in ballet, opera, and theatre. The Houston Civic Center includes the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts (opened in 1966 and the home of the Houston Symphony Orchestra [1913], the Grand Opera Association, and the Ballet Foundation), the National Space Hall of Fame, and the Alley Theater (1968).

The city's Astrodomain, a lavish entertainment complex built in the 1960s, includes the Astrodome (a plastic-domed, air-conditioned stadium and the (alas, former)home of the Oilers [football] and Astros [baseball] teams), the Astrohall (a large exhibition centre and the site of livestock shows, rodeos, and the circus), and the Astroworld (a theme amusement park). Hermann Park is the site of the Zoological Gardens, the Museum of Natural Science, and the Burke Baker Planetarium; other notable institutions in Houston include the Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum.
The Houston (George Bush) Intercontinental Airport (IAH)was opened in 1969.

A City by The Bayou

Known as the "Bayou City," Houston's cultural diversity, growing economy, medical facilities, shopping and entertainment venues offer excitement for all who choose to live or play in Texas' largest city.

Now the fourth-largest city in the country, Houston also maintains the nation's largest concentration of petrochemical plants amid a population of nearly 2 million. Annual events chronicle its international flair, including the Fiestas Patrias which celebrates Mexico's independence from Spain, and Cinco de Mayo festivities. African-Americans have a rich history here.

Houston is home to Shrine of the Black Madonna -- one of the largest African-American bookstores in the United States. Asian communities have skyrocketed with a Chinatown environment and the Di Ho area along Bellaire Boulevard.

Houston was founded in 1836 by brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen, who paid a little over $1.40 an acre for the total 6,642 acres land near Buffalo Bayou -- the same year Gen. Sam Houston's Texas Army won independence from Mexico in the Battle of San Jacinto.Historians believe that a man named W.G. McSpadden, who served with Gen. Sam Houston in the Mexican War, named the town after him 1852.

The first store opened there in 1854 and the first business district consisted of barely 40 structures. The town was relocated in 1874 after a newly sold real estate plat called for a railroad depot to be located there. Houston also served as capital of the Republic from 1837 to 1840. Eighteen years later the city of Houston paid $2,500 for land that which later served as the site for a municipal hospital. Three years later the city and county voted to secede from the Union. It wasn't long before residents and visitors would see trolley cars carry busy people along streets illuminated by gaslights.

Houston was a "first" in many ways. Along with New York, Houston was one of the first U.S. cities to build electric power plants. The city was one of the first to buy automobiles for personal travel and one of the first to discover oil (Spindletop, 1901, Humble, 1905 and Goose Creek in 1906). The city gave birth to the state's first major highway, broadcast the first commercial TV program and aired the nation's first public broadcast TV station. Even the first word spoken from the moon's surface was "Houston."

Pop. (1990) city, 1,630,553; Houston PMSA, 3,301,937; Houston-Galveston-Brazoria CMSA, 3,711,043.