Houston – Space Age Superstar

“PEOPLE COME TO HOUSTON EXPECTING to find a cowboy town,” says my effervescent tour guide, Richard Cook, as he chauffeurs me through the city’s skyscraper-studded Downtown. “But in reality, the only cowboys they are likely to see are at our annual rodeo.”

Instead, says Richard, this is a “can-do town” with an economy “as hot as a firecracker”. It not only boasts the second-largest downtown theatre district in the nation, a Museum District encompassing 19 art and cultural institutions, and the largest medical centre in the world – with 59 highly-regarded research and treatment institutions – but it is expected to soon surpass Chicago as America’s third-largest city.

“So, where are all the people?” I ask, peering at the empty sidewalks. “Oh, you will only see smokers on the streets,” Richard replies. “The rest are underground.” It sounds a bit alarming until he explains that to make life more comfy for the locals, particularly during hot, humid summer months, Houston has linked 95 city blocks with seven miles of climate-controlled tunnels. Sited 20 feet below the street, they are lined with shops, cafes, offices and even beauty salons.

There’s still much to be seen above ground in a downtown enhanced by skyscrapers designed by the likes of IM Pei and Philip Johnson and encompassing the headquarters of many of the 26 Fortune 500 companies that call Houston home.

We pass several concert halls and theatres, which, says, Richard, sometimes launch shows that go on to Broadway (Houston is one of the few US cities that can claim resident companies of opera and ballet as well as theatre and a symphony); the Federal Building where Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted to fight in the Vietnam War (as a result, later losing his boxing titles); the Downtown Aquarium featuring floor-to-ceiling tanks; Minute Maid Park, where a retractable roof allows you to watch the Astros play baseball in comfort, whatever the weather; and Sesquicentennial Park, where an 8ft-tall statue of former President George HW Bush gazes across Buffalo Bayou at a statue of his Secretary of State, James A Baker III.

Last year, 160-acre Buffalo Bayou Park fringing the waterway completed its $58-million transformation. It now offers walking and biking trails, fountains and sculptures, canoe and kayak rentals, a skate park and great views of the city skyline.

THE BIRTH OF HOUSTON

The very mention of the Bayou encourages a brief excursion into Texas history. Within three months of the Texans’ defeat of the Mexican army on April 21, 1836, on the San Jacinto battlefield east of Houston, two New York property developers descended on the area. Where better, they thought, to establish a settlement in newly-independent Texas than on the banks of the bayou? Of course, it was named after the hero of the battle, General Sam Houston.

Their choice turned out to be wise. The bayou flows into Galveston Bay, which, in turn, empties into the Gulf of Mexico, now linked to the Houston area by a ship channel that has helped create one of the largest ports in America. The economy of this south-east region of Texas was further enhanced on January 10, 1901, when oil gushed out of the ground at Spindletop in Beaumont 88 miles to the east.

Of course, many Houstonians benefitted from the oil boom. One of them was oil producer Henry T Staiti, whose impressive 1905 home is now on display in Houston’s oldest park, named, of course, after Sam Houston. Under the leadership of the city’s Heritage Society, the park has been transformed into an impressive assembly of historic buildings from various parts of Texas. Anchored by a mansion original to the site – the 1850 white-columned ‘Louisiana Plantation-style’ Kellum-Noble House – it also includes other mid-19th-century houses and cottages; an atmospheric 1823 wooden cabin built by one of Texas’s original settlers; a charming children’s playhouse; the home of an emancipated slave who served as a local Baptist pastor; an 1891 church built by German-speaking Lutherans; and a museum featuring everything from historic photographs to a late-19th-century rural general store. Most of the buildings are open to the public.

Another person to benefit from the Texas oil boom was James Stephen Hogg, who went on to become the first native-born governor of Texas. But today it is his remarkable, immensely-wealthy spinster daughter, Ima (1887-1975), who is better-known in Houston and beyond. Trained as a concert pianist in New York City and Berlin, she turned her attention instead to philanthropy, became a founder of the Houston Symphony among other things, and acquired one of the world’s best collections of early-American decorative arts.

Now owned by Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, it resides in Miss Hogg’s palatial Bayou Bend mansion in the elegant River Oaks neighbourhood west of Downtown. Crossing a suspension bridge over the bayou, I stroll through some of the 14 acres of beautiful gardens and then, under the guidance of the collection’s curator, Bradley C Brooks, visit two floors of elegantly-appointed and exquisitely-furnished rooms, each one more dazzling than the last. In them were portraits by such early-American masters as John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart and Charles Wilson Peale, handsome pieces of furniture from Boston, Philadelphia, and other centres of colonial era craftsmanship, and a splendid dining room that features gold-leaf canvas wall coverings adorned with flower motifs and a banquet table set with Chinese export porcelain.

Each spring – there’s an Azalea Trail tour through the surrounding neighbourhood, which includes entrance to five local mansions. (If the bushes show evidence of premature flowering, ice trucks are brought in to slow down the process.) In this wealthy, exclusive district is also found one of Houston’s oldest upmarket shopping areas plus, as of last year, many new shops and restaurants. In fact, some Houstonians now consider it Texas’s answer to Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive.

Meanwhile, the best-known shopping destination remains Uptown’s Galleria to the west. Encompassing about 400 stores and restaurants as well as a grand central ice-rink, it is anchored by such retail stalwarts as Neiman Marcus, Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue. Those looking for more of a fun and funky Greenwich Village ambience would find it to the east in the Montrose neighbourhood, where Westheimer Curve is awash with tempting consignment shops.

GREAT CHOICES IN THE MUSEUM DISTRICT

Accompanied by a local tourism representative, I head instead to the Museum District south of Downtown. It offers the choice of everything from the main Museum of Fine Arts and the Children’s Museum of Houston to performances at the outdoor Theatre Under the Stars. I choose the Houston Museum of Natural History, which contains one of the most-awesome dinosaur collections I have ever seen, plus a stunning array of beautiful crystals from throughout the world, a butterfly centre, an IMAX theatre and a planetarium. Then I head for the ultra-modern premises of the Menil Collection, founded by Parisian couple John and Dominique Menil to house such treasures as Impressionist paintings by Henri Matisse and pop art by Andy Warhol.

Although I find the greatly-acclaimed, non-denominational Rothko Chapel – also founded by the de Menils – too sombre for my tastes, it has over the years attracted such spiritual and political leaders as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, former President Jimmy Carter and the Dalai Lama … and has a monument on its grounds dedicated to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. I prefer instead the beautiful golden Chapel of St Basil, on the grounds of nearby St Thomas University. And for something else nearby that is completely different, we swing by the two-storey boyhood home of the late eccentric millionaire, film-maker and aviation pioneer, Howard Hughes.

And speaking of aviation I, of course, couldn’t leave Houston without visiting Space Center Houston off Interstate 45, about 22 miles south of the city, stopping off along the way to explore Kemah Boardwalk, a kind of mini-Galveston Bayside Coney Island that features thrill rides, restaurants, gift shops and other venues, some in picturesque bungalows.

The latest attraction at the Space Center is Independence Plaza, where I am able to join other visitors in touring a unique exhibition – a well-equipped NASA Space Shuttle strapped to the back of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet transporter. It makes me aware of how cramped the astronauts were in their tiny Shuttle and how innovative the technology was in transporting it across country as well as into space. Although much of NASA’s Johnson Space Center is off-bounds to civilians, you can take a NASA tram tour and enjoy the fascinating Space Center exhibitions and the films in its Blast-Off theatre, during which you can’t help but speculate about the future of space exploration. “Some of the children visiting here today,” said a guide, “may one day be able to visit Mars.”

Six off-beat Houston Attractions

Texas’s largest city may see itself primarily as a big, booming business metroplex, but there’s also a quirkier side to Space City. Here are just a few examples:

MOUNT RUSH HOUR – You don’t have to go to South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore to gawk at the gigantic heads of four American political leaders – Houston has its own of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and early Texas leaders Sam Houston and Stephen F Austin. They are located near the Downtown portion of the busy Interstate 10 motorway. And there are many more in the Production Yard workshop (pictured) of their creator, quirky local artist David Addickes.

THE ART CAR MUSEUM – Also known as the Garage Mahal, this amazing institution at 140 Heights Boulevard between Downtown and Houston Heights, includes such exhibits as a Honda motorcycle transformed into a shiny, red and rolling stiletto heel.

THE BEER CAN HOUSE – Located near Memorial Park at 222 Malone Street west of Downtown, this home, which is now managed by the Orange Show Center, was lovingly adorned by its late owners, the Milkovischs, with aluminium siding made of 50,000 flattened beer cans.

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FUNERAL HISTORY – Not to be missed is America’s largest collection of funeral service artefacts, including hearses that carried the bodies of Grace Kelly and US Presidents Reagan and Ford, decorative coffins from Ghana, and exhibits covering everything from the 5,000-year-old history of embalming to the Mexican Day of the Dead. It’s located at 415 Barren Springs north of Downtown and near George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

THE WAUGH BAT BRIDGE – For a sunset treat, head for this Montrose neighbourhood bridge crossing Buffalo Bayou. It’s home to hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats that put on a spectacular show when they emerge at twilight.

HOUSTON’S MURAL COLLECTION – The city boasts more than two dozen flamboyant murals, many of which can be seen at Graffiti Park at Leeland Street and St Emmanuel Street east of Downtown. A map is available of the sites on www.VisitHouston.com;