Allen's Landing

Allen's Landing is the officially recognized birthplace of the city of Houston, Texas, United States, the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the United States. Located in Downtown Houston between the Main Street and Fannin Street viaducts, the landing encompasses the southern bank of Buffalo Bayou, the city's principal river, at its confluence with White Oak Bayou, a major tributary. Allen's Landing is located south of the University of Houston–Downtown Commerce Street Building. In August 1836, just months after the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico, two New York real estate developers, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen, purchased of coastal prairie and settled the town of Houston on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The present day landing area was advertised as the head of navigation of the bayou In 1910, the United States government approved funding for the dredging of a ship channel from the Gulf of Mexico to the present turning basin four miles (6 km) to the east of Allen's Landing. The historic Sunset Coffee Building on Commerce at Main Street, which housed the nightclub on its third floor, is still standing. Love Street's last show was on July 7, 1980. Once the focal point of downtown Houston, a small historical park was dedicated at the site in 1967. The Southern Pacific Railroad donated of land to the park project, which was to be developed and maintained by the Houston Chamber of Commerce, the City of Houston, and the Harris County Navigation District. The name appears in a mural of Houston commissioned by the Houston Club in 1955 and painted by artist David Adickes.

After years of neglect and deterioration, Allen’s Landing, as part of Houston's Waterfront District, has undergone major revitalization and rejuvenation, much like the rest of historic downtown Houston. The first phase of the Allen's Landing revitalization project was completed in 2001. Special features of the park, located at 1001 Commerce Street, now include: a concrete paved wharf, designed to replicate the original port; a trail/walkway; a promenade; and a terrace overlooking Buffalo Bayou. The campus of the University of Houston–Downtown (UHD) straddles Allen's Landing. The university's One Main Building, which is housed in the former Merchants and Manufacturers Building (renovated in the 1980s), is just across the bayou at One Main Street, and UHD's Commerce Street Building, which was completed in May 2005, sits adjacent to the park at Main Street and Commerce. Since 2001, in a celebration of Houston's Asian American community, the Texas Dragon Boat Association has held an annual spring festival at Allen's Landing, where teams of paddlers race dragon boats throughout the day and enjoy colorful entertainment, as well as some Asian cultural and cuisine. In addition, the landing is a popular ingress/egress spot for canoe and kayak enthusiasts traveling up and down Buffalo Bayou. In 2006, Houston Endowment, Inc., a philanthropic foundation dedicated to improving life for the people of the greater Houston area, approved a $600,000 grant to be used by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership toward restoring and converting the 1930s Sunset Coffee Building into usable space and further improving Allen's Landing Park.