CityShowcase

Houston is named after Sam Houston who served as a general of the Texas army and president of the Republic of Texas. It's the largest city in Texas and fourth largest in the nation. The area was established on the Buffalo Bayou by the Allen brothers in August 1836. Houston is one of the nation's largest seaports. Major annual events include the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston International Festival, and the largest livestock exposition in the state with championship cowboys and popular entertainers.

American Funeral Service Museum

415 Barren Springs Dr.

Houston, Texas

(281) 876-3063

The museum has a collection of hearses, coffins, caskets, and other displays that traces the history of funerals from the early Egyptians to the present.

Anheuser-Busch Brewery

775 Gellhorn Rd.

Houston, Texas

(713) 670-1695 or 670-1696

http://www.anheuser-busch.com/

There are tours of the facility end in the hospitality room.

Astrodome

Harris County Domed Stadium, jct. I-610 and Kirby Dr.

Houston, Texas

(713) 799-9555 or 799-9595

http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/astrod.htm

There are trussed beams that is braced in a diamond pattern. There is a seating of 55,000 to 76,000 that the statium homes of the Houston Astros, Houston Oilers and the University of Houston Cougars.

Bayou Bend

1 Westcott St.

Houston, Texas

(713) 639-7750

http://www.bayoubend.uh.edu/

The Bayou Bend Collection is one of the nation's foremost assemblages of American decorative arts dating from 1620 through 1870.

Blaffer Gallery

120 Fine Arts Building

Houston, Texas

(713) 743-9530

http://www.hfac.uh.edu/blaffer/

It is the Fine Arts Building on the central campus.

Children's Museum of Houston

1500 Binz St.

Houston, Texas

(713) 522-1138

http://www.cmhouston.org/

The museum has hands-on displays that offers such subjects as history, science, cultural, and the arts.

Contempory Arts Museum

5216 Montrose at Bissonnet

Houston, Texas

(713) 526-3129

The museum contains changing displays that are focused on recent themes in art as well as on international, national, and Texas artists.

George R. Brown Convention Center

Houston, Texas

The center contains 417,000 square feet of displays, a 3,600-seat theater, 43 meeting rooms, and a 31,000 square-foot ballroom.

Heritage Society, The

1100 Bagby St., Sam Houston Park

Houston, Texas

(713) 655-1912

It's a outdoor museum presenting seven 19th-century structures and also three galleries that features Texas history.

Hermann Park

600 Fannin

Houston, Texas

(713) 845-1000

http://www.hermannpark.org/

It is a wooden 400-acre park. There are baseball, golf, bicycling, picnicking, hiking, tennis and horseback riding (no rentals).

Houston Arboretum and Nature Center

4501 Woodway Dr.

Houston, Texas

(713) 681-8433

http://www.neosoft.com/~arbor/index.html

It's a 155-acre nature sanctuary supporting many species of native plants and wildlife.

Houston Civic Center

on Capital, between Bagby and Milam Sts.

Houston, Texas

(713) 237-1439

The civic center for Houston, Texas.

Houston Fire Museum

2403 Milam Street

Houston, Texas

(713) 524-2526

http://www.houstonfiremuseum.org/

Houston Fire Museum is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public about the importance of fire safety and the history of fire service.

Houston Museum of Natural Science

1 Hermann Circle Dr.

Houston, Texas

(713) 639-4600 for the museum, or 639-4629 for the theater

http://www.hmns.mus.tx.us/

The museum has displays about anthropology, astronomy, paleontology, geology, and natural history. There is an IMAX Theatre shows natural-science films on a six story, 80-foot-wide screen.

Houston Zoological Gardens

1513 North MacGregor Way.

Houston, Texas

(713) 284-5888

http://www.houstonzoo.org/

It displays in the 50-acre zoo include a rain forest aviary, a gorilla habitat, and more.

Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts

Houston, Texas

It is the home to the Houston Symphony and also the Society for the Performing Arts.

Menil Collection, The

1515 Sul Ross

Houston, Texas

(713) 525-9400

http://www.menil.org/

The Menil Collection, Houston Texas, The Menil Collection opened in 1987 to preserve and exhibit the art collection of John and Dominique de Menil. Considered one of the most important privately assembled collections of the twentieth century, The Menil Collection houses approximately 15,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and rare books. Masterpieces from antiquity, the Byzantine and medieval worlds, the tribal cultures of Africa, Oceania, and the American Pacific Northwest, and the twentieth century are particularly well represented. Among the highlights of the museum are its Surrealist holdings, widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost collections of its kind. The Menil Collection displays selections from its permanent collection and regularly offers special exhibitions and programs to the public.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The

1001 Bissonnet

Houston, Texas

(713) 639-7300

http://mfah.org/

The museum includes more than 27,000 European, American, African, and Far Eastern art objects, which includes the Finnigan Collection of ancient art.

Museum of Printing History

1324 West Clay

Houston, Texas

(713) 522-4652

http://www.printingmuseum.org/

The museum exhibits antique printing equipment, etchings, engravings and ancient documents.