Architectural and Tunnel
Downtown Walking Tours
Houston Historical Tours offers two Architectural and Tunnel Downtown Walking Tours. Because these tours involve going into the business areas, these tours are available only Mondays through Fridays.
Tour A
Begin by walking through the oldest park in Houston and view eight homes and one church that were built between 1823 and 1905 and walk into a reconstructed 1878 general store. Walk through four different tunnels, three skybridges, to a skyscraper, and up to the 58th & 59th floor observation decks.
See the interior of buildings, including the 1926 Julia B. Ideson Library and a 1947 bank building, both of which are on the National Register of Historical Places.
Walk on a rooftop and look at the street beneath you. View public folk art including New Deal murals.
Tour B
This tour focuses on the historic downtown businesses and high culture.
We will go inside the Mellie and Neils Esperson buildings; the latter is known as the wedding cake building and was the tallest building in Houston from 1927 to 1929.
Then we will go inside the great art deco building that was home to Gulf Oil. It was the tallest building in Houston from 1929 to 1963.
We will go to the 60th floor observation deck in the JP Morgan Chase Tower, which has been the tallest building in Texas since 1982.
We visit inside the Rice Lofts that was one of the tallest buildings in Houston when it was built in 1913 and the former site of the capital of the Republic of Texas.
We will also visit the Bank of America gothic looking towers and Pennzoil Place. Then, we’ll change our direction to visit the following:
- Wortham Center, where the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet have performed since 1987
- Jones Hall, which has been home to the symphony since 1966
- The Alley Theatre, which opened in 1969
- The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 2003.
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