Table of ContentsHermann Park 2Sam Houston Monument 8Hermann Park Train 13Japanese Gardens 15Mecom Fountains 20Miller Outdoor Theatre 25Golf Course 27Museum of Natural Science 31 and Cockrell Butterf ly Center

Hermann Park

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“the heart of the city”

Hermann Park is one of the most visited public parks in Houston. Situated between Fannin Street and North MacGregor Way, it is within walking distance from the Texas Medical Center, Rice University, and the Museum District, and within a few miles of the Third Ward, the historic Astrodome and Reliant Stadium. The land it occupies, was presented to the City of Houston by George H. Hermann in 1914. This historic park is home to numerous cultural institutions including the Houston Zoo, Houston Garden Center, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Museum of Natural Science, and the Hermann Park Golf Course, which happens to be the first desegregated public golf course in the United States of America.

By 1980s however, due to insufficient public resources and very high public attendance, the park became rundown and entered a state of desperation. In response, a large group of committed and visionary Houstonians formed the non-profit organization known as the Friends of Hermann Park to encourage the development of more attractive usable green space in Hermann Park, and to promote the restoration of the Park to its originally intended standards of beauty.

Throughout the 1950’s the Museum of Natural History struggled to secure a new museum building. In 1959 a four acre site on Hermann Loop Drive was leased by the city of Houston to the Museum of Natural History; a three year fund drive culminated in the construction of the first phase of the museum’s new building between 1963 and 1964, incorporating the Burke Baker Planetarium. A second phase, built between 1967 and 1969, resulting in the addition of 8,000 square feet of exhibition and administrative space.

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Between 1967 and 1969 a new Miller Outdoor Theater, designed by Eugene Werlin and Associates was constructed on the site of the old Doric proscenium. A high, bermed lawn provided amphitheater-type seating in front of the new stage and orchestra. The columns of the old theater were salvaged and grouped around a circular pool to form the Mecom-Rockwell Colonnade in 1968. Four years earlier, the donors of this fountain, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Mecom, had constructed the Mecom Fountain in the Sunken Garden, sixteen years after Hare and Hare advanced their fountain design.

The protracted realization of facilities that were required in Hermann Park since the 1940’s underscored the lack of recognition and official support which the park, like many other public properties in Houston, elicited. Even though many of the major improvements continued to be the result of private benefaction, it was clear by the 1950’s that the Civic Art Movement of the 1910’s and 1920’s was spent. While a reversal of this negligent attitude occurred during the 1960’s, it often seemed to substitute good intention for a lack of judgment and discrimination.

This was evident in the Hermann Park Master Plan, prepared for the City of Houston during 1971 and 1972 by two engineering firms, Lockwood, Andrews and Newman and James Cummins, Inc., and adopted in 1973 as the basis for subsequent park improvements. The 1972 master plan departed considerably from the Kessler and Hare and Hare general plans in an attempt to accommodate the numbers of people using the park and its facilities, the numbers of automobiles within the park and another expansion of the zoo.

In 1993, FHP commissioned a master plan for Hermann Park from Hanna/Olin Partnership of Philadelphia, a landscape architectural group recognized internationally for the excellence of its work in public parks around the United States and Europe. Houston City Council adopted a Master Plan, created in consultation with the City of Houston and various stakeholders, in 1997. In 1995, Friends of Hermann Park adopted a master plan for Hermann Park that has provided a blueprint for all subsequent renovations and enhancements to the Park. In 2004, Friends of Hermann Park changed its name to the Hermann Park Conservancy to reflect an institutional and permanent commitment to stewardship of Hermann Park’s natural resources and infrastructure.

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Sam Houston Monument

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“showing visitors the way”

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Upon arriving at Hermann Park visitors are greeted by a statue of one of Houston’s founders, General Sam Houston. He points in, towards the park, leading the park visitor in the direction of it’s many amenities. The Sam Houston Monument Circle and the North Plaza are quiet spaces from which visitors can observe the larger historic urban design context. Prior to the park improvement cars and buses parked around the traffic circle obscuring both the monument and the pool. The traffic circle has been reconfigured and a separate parking lot has been constructed to accommodate cars and buses, which abound during the school year bringing students to other park venues. The monument circle on the Montrose axis is filled by a bronze equestrian statue of Sam Houston. Modeled by Enrico F. Cerracchio after a painting by Seymour Thomas, the Sam Houston Monument, like the Miller Memorial Theater, is the result of private beneficence. Funds for the erection of the monument, which was completed in 1925, were raised by the Sam Houston Memorial Association.

After 50 years making memories for countless Houstonians, the Hermann Park train is receiving an update. The little Hermann Park train that chugged and tooted its way into children’s hearts for half a century will come to the end of the line Jan. 1 as workers make final preparations of the opening of an expanded multi-purpose miniature railroad. The new rail line comes with a host of new bells and whistles, wider carriages capable of seating two adults, cars equipped to accom-modate handicapped riders and three mini-stations to service museums and link to Metro’s light rail system. The construction of the new train ride will be completed in 2 phases. Phase I, completed in March of 2008, expanded the train route to 1.8 miles and introduced the new larger 24 gauge train, accessible to riders with wheel chairs and parents with strollers, to the public. The first public rides began March 8.

This construction is part of a $15 million renovation of Lake Plaza undertaken by the Hermann Park Conservancy in partnership with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department and is expected to be finished in March 2009. The Lake Plaza construction project will almost double the size of the plaza and will bring improved access to the Houston Zoo while providing a new depot and satellite stations around the park for the Hermann Park Mini-Train. Its primary role will be entertainment. That’s still the number one reason for people getting on. But in its new incarnation, the train can take riders to the museum district, and, through light rail connections, the Texas Medical Center and other destinations.

About 500,000 people ride the train annually. Included in $15 million of improvements to the railroad and the plaza from which it departs are almost two miles of new or improved track. A redesigned Lake Plaza will feature a new train station, a restaurant, restrooms and extensive landscape redesigns. The miniature train will depart from a temporary station near the Miller Outdoor Theatre parking lot until Lake Plaza opens in spring 2009. The improvements are part of the second phase of the 93-year-old park’s upgrades, expected to cost in excess of $45 million. Phase two also will include new trails in a hard to reach

Hermann Park Miniature Train“an enjoyable mini-tour”

80-acre forested section of the park, improvements to the Houston Garden Center and Japanese Gardens, the addition of a dog park and landscaping between Main Street’s Mecom Fountain and the park entrance. The first phase included the expansion of McGovern Lake, a redesign of the park’s reflection pool and renovations of the plaza at Miller Outdoor Theatre. The improvements made to the park, which will include gardens featuring plants reflecting diverse cultural groups in the city, are believed to enhance Houston’s image as a “green” city. Hermann Park, at 455 acres, about half the size of New York’s Central Park, could be an “icon to a greener Houston.”

Many outsiders now perceive Houston as “a concrete jungle,” in part because of its role as an international petroleum center. Hermann Park’s miniature gasoline powered train has operated as a privately owned concession since 1957. The park conservancy, which oversees park management in conjunction with the city, assumed operation of the railroad in June. It is estimated that the railroad will earn $250,000 in profit annually. That sum, will be reinvested into the park. Train tickets will increase 25 cents to $2.50. Naming rights for the railroad’s new rolling stock will be sold to raise additional revenue. Naming rights to locomotives will cost $250,000; for carriages, $150,000.

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Japanese Gardens“cultural beauty”

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The Japanese Garden in Hermann Park is operated by the City of Houston, Parks and Recreation Department and was created by the efforts of American and Japanese businesses with grants from many foundations and individuals. The City of Houston donated the land and helped with the construction. It is a symbol of friendship between this country and Japan. This particular garden is a daimyo style, that includes a tea garden, a kaiyushiki stroll garden, and a scroll garden. The entry garden is a dry landscape garden. Imagine you are standing on the sea black moonstone and the boulders are the rising landscape of Japan. The bamboo flowing in the wind represents the sound of the ocean. The boulders were moved from a former Japanese garden at the downtown Houston Lighting & Power building downtown. Entrance to the garden is through the gate-house or nagayamon. A gate-house at one time was used for living quarters or storage, but here it is used for other purposes, ticket booth and rest rooms.

Through the gate straight ahead there is a welcoming lantern, a gift from the city of Chiba, Japan. This five-piece lantern was carved from solid granite. The aperture of the lantern focuses the spirit of the garden. There are three stone lanterns, ishi-doro, in this garden. Curved pathways in the garden are covered with crushed stone similar to moonstone. The arbor is a place to sit, meditate and clear the mind of other thoughts. It is also special place to wait until called to tea ceremony in the teahouse. Across the pond, one can see the yukimi lantern given by Houston’s sister city—Chiba. Imagine that it is a lighthouse placed on a stone beach, with the pond as an ocean and the rocks in the water symbolizing ships being guided by the lantern. The cascade or waterfall makes one think of melting snow from a mountain stream. The hill is landscaped in cherry blossom pink crape myrtles, which bloom in the summer.

Crape myrtle trees, which originated in China and Japan, are common in Houston. The stones are of Texas pink granite from Marble Falls. Leaving the arbor, proceed to the right along the flat stones through the tea garden gate or niwakido. Before entering the teahouse, tea ceremony guests walk along this path which the host will have moistened to appear damp with morning dew. This path is hence called the dewy path or roji. The tsukubai, at the end of the dewy path is used to purify oneself before going into the teahouse. This tsukubai arrangement includes the water basin, three flat rocks surrounding it and a bamboo dipper to dip water from the water basin. A beautiful sound is created when water falls through the small stones into the mizukoto or water harp below. Near the teahouse are two viewing stones. When the teahouse is open and one stands on these viewing stones to look through the teahouse, one can see a living picture of the waterfall with the distant pine trees creating a bor-rowed landscape or shakkei. This living picture resembles a Japanese woodblock print or ukiyoe. It is important to note, the teahouse was placed first and the garden view was then created around it.

This teahouse was donated by the Commemorative Association of the World Expo Fund of Japan with the initiative of former Prime Minister Kaifu who visited Houston in 1990 for the World Economic Summit. It was built in Japan and reassembled here by Japanese craftsmen. The teahouse is made from hinoki, or Japanese cypress beams. Hinoki is famous for its smooth, fine grain and is an essential element in Japanese construction. Inside, the crossbeams, which support the ceiling, are made of a special Japanese red cedar tree called Kitayama-sugi from Kyoto, Japan. This wood is carefully cultivated so knots do not develop. Made without nails, the teahouse is an excellent example of Japanese wooden mortise and tin.

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Mecom Fountains“refreshing waters”

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The Mecom Fountains were presented as a gift to the City of Houston in 1964 by oil magnate John W. Mecom and his wife Mary. The fountain was designed by Eugene Werlin and was built by Warrior Constructors at a cost of $200,000. When the fountain was originally built, it was the largest fountain in the city. The Mecom is actually three raised pools within one main, oblong pool. It sits within the traffic circle at the entrance to Hermann Park. Its three fountains, each with a central jet, shoot water skyward, with the highest jet shooting 20 feet into the air. Three smaller jets send water to the center of the three fountains. The base of the fountain is constructed of white marble. The night lighting and control are electronically operated and wind sensors regulate the water height to guard against spray on windy days. The fountain has a total of 264 lights and shoots 8,000 gallons of water per minute. The fountain replaced the sunken gardens that were originally on the property and had fallen into disrepair. The gardens were raised 4 ½ feet after the fountain’s construction and now form the fountain’s base. In 2006, vandals stole 246 of the fountain’s lights. Funds for their replacement and council approval for their purchase were secured in 2007. The replacement lights were received in January of 2008 and installation and refocusing took three weeks to complete. Security measures to protect the Mecom Fountain lights will include additional surveillance by the Houston Police, Hotel ZaZa and the Houston Parks.

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Miller Outdoor Theatre“it’s for everyone”

Miller Outdoor Theatre officially opened in August 1968. The 1,582-seat facility is actually the second theater in Hermann Park to bear the name of the late Houston mining engineer Jesse Wright Miller. The first Miller Outdoor Theatre opened in 1923. A classic Doric prosce-nium structure, on the site of the present facility, the theatre featured 20 Corinthian columns on either side of the stage. Some of the surviving columns may still be seen, grouped around a circular pool forming the Mecom Rockwell Colonnade at the entrance to Hermann Park. Steadfast in the founding principal that the theatre shall provide cultural and educational events free of charge for the public, Miller has evolved like the city itself. The Miller Outdoor Theatre is the premier outdoor theater for the performing arts in Houston, Texas.

Located on approximately 7.5 acres of land in Hermann Park, at 100 Concert Drive, the theater offers a range of professional entertainment, including classical music, jazz, ballet, Shakespeare, musical theater, and classic films, with free performances running from March through October, where the general public can relax in a covered seating area or enjoy a pre-performance picnic on an amphitheatre-style hillside. In 1922, the original theater was designed by William Ward Watkin as a theater surrounded by twenty Corinthian-style limestone columns and built by Tom Tellepsen. The theatre’s dedication plaque reads: To the Arts of Music, Poetry, Drama and Oratory, by which the striving spirit of man seeks to interpret the words of god. This theatre of the City of Houston is permanently dedicated. “Miller’s Hill” was created in 1948 with dirt from the excavations of Fannin Street.

In 1968, the city built a new theatre with bonds approved by public vote. The new theatre building, designed by Eugene Werlin and Associates, won several awards: the American Iron and Steel Institute’s Biannual Award (1969), the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Award of Excellence, and the James E. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation Award. The 1968 Miller Theatre building was then refurbished starting in 1996, jointly funded by the city of Houston and Friends of Hermann Park.

The roof and siding were replaced, and additional restrooms and office areas were installed. In addition, a small stage was added to the east end of the facility, playing to a newly incorporated open plaza area. The renovations were completed in 1998. What was once “a permanent bandstand” in Hermann Park is now a first-class proscenium theatre, professionally operated and committed to providing quality and diverse performances worthy of the great international city that Houston has become.

Located on nearly eight acres in the heart of Hermann Park, Miller Outdoor Theatre is the only free open-air theatre of its kind in the United States. It is a home away from home for some of Houston’s most dynamic arts organizations such as HITS Theater, Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, Festival Chicano, Houston Symphony, Theatre Under The Stars and a host of other multi-cultural groups and theater companies. The Miller Theatre Board acts as a steward of public funds to provide professional-caliber performances, free to the public, at the Miller Outdoor Theatre for the cultural enrichment of Houston’s diverse communities and the visitors to this great city. Miller Outdoor Theatre offers the most diverse season of professional entertainment of any Houston performance venue, and it’s all free! Classical music, jazz, ethnic music and dance, ballet, Shakespeare, musical theatre, classic films, and much more are included in this year’s outstanding line-up. Relax in the covered seating area or enjoy a pre-performance picnic on the hillside. All performances at Miller are family-friendly!

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Golf Course“unwind and relax with freedom”

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Hermann Park offers a superior golf experience and so much more. Adjacent to the course are Houston’s world renowned Texas Medical Center and the historic Museum District. The Rose Garden blooms for more than 300 glorious days a year. Zoologi-cal gardens shelter a vast menagerie of rare and beautiful animals. Hermann Park Golf Course awaits you in the midst of all these treasures. While playing golf under the majestic emerald canopy of stately oak trees, you readily forget you are in a city teeming with industry. Unwind on the airy veranda of the historic clubhouse, and satisfy your appetite with delicious food, combined with impeccable service. The first public golf course in America to welcome all races, Hermann Park Golf Course started a rich tradition of golfing excellence that has prospered for more than 70 years. Almost a century ago, the great oil, cattle and land baron George Hermann gave a gift to the city. Today, Hermann’s gift has become 407 acres of Houston’s loveliest gardens, parks, golf course and public spaces. And, in 1922, the lush and scenic Hermann Park Golf Course was built. Hermann Park Golf Course started a rich tradition of golfing excellence that has prospered for more than 70 years.

Hermann Park Golf Course was the first public golf course in America to welcome all races. October 15, 1997, Houston-based BSL Golf Corporation, with the assistance of renowned golf architect Carlton Gipson, was selected to work in cooperation with the Parks and Recreation Department and Friends of Hermann Park to restore the grand course for the next century. Relaxing while you play golf under the majestic emerald canopy of stately oak trees, you readily forget you are in a city teeming with industry. And, recent restora-tion has ensured the grand old course will keep its manicured luster with plush Bermuda greens. Unwind on the airy veranda of the historic clubhouse, and satisfy your appetite with delicious food, combined with impeccable service. Hermann Park offers a superior golf experience and so much more. Adjacent to the course are Houston’s world renowned Texas Medical Center and the historic Museum District. The Rose Garden blooms for more than 300 glorious days a year. Zoological gardens shelter a vast menagerie of rare and beautiful animals. Hermann Park Golf Course awaits you, in the midst of all these treasures. You’ll find no more enjoyable way to experience George Hermann’s legacy than playing this 18-hole oasis in the very heart of Houston.

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The Houston Museum of Natural Science is a science museum located on the northern border of Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, USA. The museum was established in 1909 by the Houston Museum and Scientific Society, an organization whose goals were to provide a free institution for the people of Houston focusing on education and science. Museum attendance totals over two million visitors each year. The museum complex consists of a central facility with four floors of natural science halls and exhibits, Burke Baker Planetarium, Cockrell Butterfly Center and the Wortham IMAX Theater. The museum is one of the most popular in the United States and ranks second only to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC in attendance amongst non-Smithsonian museums. Much of the museum’s popularity is attrib-uted to its large number of special or guest exhibits. Originally located in the City Auditorium building in downtown, the museum moved to a building within Houston Zoo in 1929.

The current facility in Hermann Park was constructed in 1969. In 1988, the museum became the first affiliate site for the Challenger Center organization. The Wortham IMAX Theater and the George Observatory were opened in 1989. The museum’s high attendance levels have allowed the museum to begin plans to expand and more than double its floor space in the next few years. The new exhibits are most likely to focus on dinosaurs and astronomy. The Foucault pendulum, demonstrating the Earth rotation. The length of the pendulum’s cable is over 60 feet long. Cullen Hall of Gems & Minerals and Eby Hall of Mineral Science, featuring a large exhibit of over 750 crystallized mineral specimens and rare gemstones. Farish Hall of Texas Wildlife exhibits animals and wildlife native to Texas. The hall contains a video wall that displays the plants, animals and topography of the seven biotic regions of the state. Evelyn and Herbert Frensley Hall of African Wildlife, a display of taxidermied animals, including one of only two forest giraffes exhibited in North America. Opening in 1969, the hall allows visitors to explore the seven biomes of the continent of Africa. Over 120 specimens, including 42 species of birds and 28 species of mammals are on display. Strake Hall of Malacology, with many specimens of

Museum of Natural Science and Cockrell Butterfly Center

“indulgence for nature lovers”

mollusks. Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Hall of Paleontology, showing many fossils, including an 85-foot long Diplodocus skeleton, the only mounted Diplodocus hayi in the world. The hall contains over 450 fossils and fossil replicas. John P. McGovern Hall of the Americas, showing exhibits of pre-Columbian archaeological artifacts. Welch Chemistry Hall, with chemistry related displays and a periodic table of elements with a sample of each element.

The Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is a stunning, living exhibit that showcases hundreds of live butterflies in a naturalistic rainforest setting. The central conservatory is a dramatic three-story glass cone filled with tropical plants and exotic butterflies. During a typical visit, one can expect to see 50 to 60 different species of the world’s largest and most colorful butterfly species, flying through the balmy air, hovering over flowers or sipping fruit juice—and occasionally, landing on visitors! The butterflies are raised on special butterfly farms in tropical Asia and North, Central, and South America, and shipped to the Center in their chrysalis form.

Be sure to check out the Chrysalis Corner while you’re here; you might be lucky enough to see a butterfly emerge and expand its wings before being released into the Center. Also included in the Butterfly Center experience is an Insect Zoo, where you’ll meet some of the butterflies’ more creepy-crawly relatives, and the Entomology Hall, where hundreds of spectacular specimens of preserved butterflies, moths, beetles, and other insects are displayed. The plants in the Cockrell Butterfly Center are of great interest to those with horticultural leanings. You may wish to pick up a guide to the plants to help you learn more about the plants when you visit. Since it opened in 1994, one of the main goals of the Cockrell Butterfly Center has been to promote butterfly watching, butterfly gardening, and other aspects of butterfly conservation. Many of the flowering plants that provide nectar for the butterflies can be grown in Houston gardens, thus providing a welcoming area for these delightful and amazing creatures.

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