Sam Houston Park – Visiting Houston’s Parks, One Week at a Time

Address:  1000 Bagby St, Houston, TX ‎
Cost:  Free!
Appropriate Age:  Any age!

Sam Houston Park is Houston’s oldest park. It is located just behind City Hall in Downtown and is a huge piece of green space in the middle of skyscrapers.

Sam Houston Park has many historic houses and buildings, a pond, ducks, a bridge, swings and lots of room to run. Some parking is free on the street, but be sure to check the signs before leaving your car.

My family and I visited over winter break and these are my take-aways:

1. This is an awesome park.
2. I’m getting our next family pictures taken here.
3. More people should be here.

This park is really great. It is huge with a lot of different things to do. My kids ran to each of the houses and I listened to the audio tour on my cell phone (by following instructions on the signs). We then went down to the pond, between the ducks and over the bridge. And then we ran back up to the swings.

In front of the houses, a couple was taking wedding pictures. That’s when it hit me that this is a great place for pictures. There are neat old houses with wrap-around porches, a quaint little church and giant skyscrapers in the background. We are coming here for our next round of family photos.

While we were playing, my son exclaimed that we had Houston all to our selves. It was true. Except for the bride and groom and a couple of other people, we had the park to ourselves.

The park does slope down from the street, which is always a little worrisome for me. I like to have a lot of eyes on public spaces, for safety, but this park has very little pedestrian traffic.

With such a great space, I wonder why it’s not more like an Old Town in San Diego or have a full calendar of events like Discovery Green.  Discovery Green is just on the other side of Downtown and is packed with families every weekend.  Someday I hope the same is true for Sam Houston Park!

The park does not have bathrooms, but it is right next to the Museum of Texas History which is open Tuesday to Saturday.  The park is also close to City Hall which has the Visitor Center (and bathrooms) on the first floor.

Overall I love this park.  It’s a great space right in Downtown Houston.  I’ll keep going and hope some of you come and help keep an eye on the public space with me.  Try to go when the Museum of Texas History is open so you can see this too!