Some restaurants outlast the neighborhoods that first made them. They absorb decades of change, become part of how people mark time and eventually carry a city's history in ways that no building alone can. Preservation Houston invites you to join us as we celebrate the inaugural class of legacy restaurants in our Savoring History program — 28 establishments whose stories are woven into the life of the city.

Downtown’s Evolving Skyline traces more than a century of ambition through the buildings that reshaped Houston’s silhouette and its sense of possibility. This 90-minute, docent-guided walking tour moves from early 20th-century confidence to late-century experimentation, stopping at landmarks such as 806 Main, dismissed as “Carter’s Folly” when it rose 16 stories in 1910, and the 1929 Gulf Building, Houston’s great Art Deco landmark.

Join us Saturday afternoon, April 11, for an open house at 2023 Everett Street, a c. 1903 Near Northside cottage that has survived more than 120 years with nearly all its historic elements intact. The property went on the market in March and is expected to go under contract soon, but we’ve arranged a private look inside before it sells.

Join your fellow Preservation Houston and Pier & Beam members for our spring all-member happy hour at Axelrad, a Midtown beer garden with a history worth knowing. The building dates to 1923, when German immigrants Gertrude and David Axelrad built it as a family grocery store and residence on the corner of Alabama and Almeda. After years of vacancy and serious disrepair, it was restored and converted into one of Midtown's most distinctive gathering spots, earning a Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston in 2018.

Houston photographer Molly Block has spent years documenting what most people drive past: the neon pylons, ghost signs and hand-lettered façades that mark the city's commercial past. “Signs of the City: Framing Houston's Roadside Landmarks” brings together 30 photographs she has made since 2011 — theater marquees, coffee shop towers, donut stands and painted walls, the everyday landmarks that give Houston's commercial streets their character, photographed with the same attention usually reserved for buildings. Join us to hear Block discuss her work and its connection to Preservation Houston's advocacy at a reception and artist talk Tuesday, March 24.

Settled in the mid-19th century at what was then Houston’s western edge, the Old Sixth Ward grew up alongside the railroads that powered the city’s early expansion. Much of the neighborhood was developed by W. R. Baker, a Houston mayor and president of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, and many early residents were railroad workers who built modest wood-frame cottages enlivened with hand-cut gingerbread ornamentation. These houses were practical, personal and expressive — everyday architecture shaped by the people who lived there.

We've expanded our footprint in the historic Ironcraft Studios Building at 3907 Main Street, and we'd like to show you around. Stop by between 10 a.m. and noon Saturday, March 7, for an open house. You'll be able to tour the expanded office and see the new PH Studio, a flexible meeting space designed to host the programs, workshops and conversations that connect Houston’s architectural heritage to its future.

This two-hour, docent-guided walking tour focuses on the lives and legacies of some of Glenwood Cemetery’s most notable women, whose influence stretches from the suffrage movement to the silver screen. Featured figures include Charlotte Allen, wife of Houston co-founder Augustus Allen; suffragists Annette Finnigan and Florence Sterling; publisher and stateswoman Oveta Culp Hobby, who led the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II; and movie star Gene Tierney.

Join Preservation Houston as we gather to recognize the visionaries, preservationists and advocates who keep Houston’s architectural heritage alive. The Cornerstone Dinner is our annual evening of recognition — a chance to honor exceptional local preservation projects and the people behind them. It’s also a moment to reflect on how preservation continues to shape Houston’s future and to raise essential support for the work that makes it possible.

Have you ever wanted to research a building or neighborhood in Houston, but didn’t know where to begin? Start at the Houston Public Library. In this session, Ginger Berni, architecture archivist at the Houston History Research Center, will guide you through the maze of resources available at the library.

Our 90-minute docent-guided walking tour explores Turner Addition’s evolution through its 20th-century residential architecture, from picturesque 1920s suburban houses to modern and postmodern townhouses of the 1970s and ’80s. Along the route, we’ll highlight work by architects including William Ward Watkin, Alfred C. Finn, Howard Barnstone and Carlos Schoeppl that together trace shifting ideas about domestic life, design and the city itself.

This is a repeat presentation, offered in response to strong interest.

Every building has a story, and there are many tools available to help you discover yours. In this Time & Place session, Preservation Services Director Emily Ardoin will introduce a selection of mostly free, online tools for researching the history of a home or other building in Houston. She’ll also share practical search tips and guidance on how to interpret what you find.

Pier & Beam heads to the East End on Wednesday evening, February 4, for happy hour at Neighbors. The all-day café and gathering spot is part of The Plant, a Good Brick Award-winning project at the heart of a revitalized Harrisburg Boulevard corridor.

Join Preservation Houston for a special screening of Cinema Paradiso at the historic River Oaks Theatre. We’re proud to co-present this beloved film in one of Houston’s most cherished movie houses, a setting that deepens its story and its meaning.

Every building has a story, and there are many tools available to help you discover yours. In this Time & Place session, Preservation Services Director Emily Ardoin will introduce a selection of mostly free, online tools for researching the history of a home or other building in Houston. She’ll also share practical search tips and guidance on how to interpret what you find.

Pier & Beam invites Preservation Houston members behind the scenes at William T. Cannady Hall for Architecture, the newest addition to the Rice School of Architecture. Join us at 10 a.m. Saturday, January 17, for a guided look at a building designed for making, experimenting and rethinking how architecture is taught and built.

Pier & Beam — PH’s next-generation member group — heads to Avondale this month for a January happy hour at Bar Madonna, the cocktail bar inside The Marlene, a recently opened boutique inn in a historic Neoclassical house at the edge of Montrose and Midtown.

At the turn of the 20th century, Buffalo Bayou was downtown Houston’s front door — a working waterfront crowded with wharves, warehouses, breweries, factories and produce houses. From the Port of Houston at Allen’s Landing to the commercial blocks that lined the bayou’s banks, this stretch was teeming with activity. The scene today is very different, but traces of that earlier, industrious landscape remain if you know where to look.

Join us for Preservation Houston’s Holiday Party from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 10, at the historic Eldorado Ballroom in the Third Ward. A 2024 Good Brick Award winner, the Eldorado is one of Houston’s great cultural landmarks — a 1939 Streamline Moderne treasure where legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Ray Charles and B.B. King once lit up the stage. After a thoughtful restoration, the building is again a gathering place at the heart of one of the city’s most historic neighborhoods.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

This two-hour walking tour traces the changing tastes and the varied social and personal motivations reflected in some of Glenwood's outstanding monuments, which range from elaborate Victorian obelisks and angels to crisp, modern compositions. Along the way, docents will explain the symbolism and stories behind the monuments and will discuss the lives of Houstonians both famous and forgotten who commissioned them.

Pier & Beam is gathering in Montrose this month for a happy hour during the opening week of Doc’s, the new jazz supper club in the historic Tower Theater. Built in 1936 and designed by architect W. Scott Dunne, the Tower is one of Houston’s few surviving historic neighborhood theater buildings.

Join Preservation Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Bayou Bend for a special outdoor screening of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. We’re co-presenting this beloved 1948 comedy in the Diana Garden tent on the grounds of Ima Hogg’s 1928 estate — a fitting setting for a film about the eternal quest for domestic perfection.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

The section of downtown east of Main Street is a study in transformation. Once home to Quality Hill — Houston’s most fashionable residential neighborhood in the 19th century — the area shifted toward commerce with the expansion of the business district and the arrival of Union Station in 1911. By the late 20th century, sweeping redevelopment projects like Houston Center and the George R. Brown Convention Center had dramatically reshaped the landscape. Today, the neighborhood is a layered mix of small commercial buildings, early skyscrapers and sleek modern towers.

Preservation Houston’s History in Print author series continues at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, November 13, with Anna Mathias discussing her mother’s newly published travelogue, The Greyhound Diary. In 1949, British traveler Judith Montagu — a spirited cousin of Clementine Churchill — crossed America by bus, stopping in Houston for champagne at the Bayou Club, a tour of the Houston Chronicle and a boat ride on the Ship Channel with Jesse H. Jones. Anna will share the story behind the diary and read from its pages, offering a witty, colorful portrait of postwar America.

Preservation Houston’s next-generation member group invites you to their casual monthly happy hour. Open to ages 21–45, Pier & Beam is a great way to connect with others who share an interest in preservation, architecture and history. Whether you’re already a member or just curious, these gatherings are an easy introduction to the group.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

The area now known as the Museum District gained prominence in the 1920s, thanks to its proximity to Rice University, Hermann Park and the Museum of Fine Arts. As Houston expanded, stretches of open prairie were transformed into elegant residential neighborhoods — communities that remain highly desirable a century later.

Join Preservation Houston and The Heritage Society as we welcome preservationist Minnette Boesel to share the story of Market Square’s rebirth through first-hand experiences, rare photographs and a preservationist’s perspective on saving one of Houston’s most important historic neighborhoods.

Join Preservation Houston for a special screening of Hellfighters at 2:45 p.m. Sunday, September 28, at the historic River Oaks Theatre. We’re proud to co-present this showing at the restored Art Deco landmark — and to revisit a larger-than-life Hollywood take on one of Houston’s own legends.

Advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

Although Glenwood Cemetery is known for its splendid Victorian monuments, there’s a more modern side as well. This docent-guided walking tour explores some of the newer sections of Glenwood and the lives of some of the well-known 20th century Houstonians buried there, including businessmen George and Herman Brown; cotton magnate and statesman Will Clayton; Edgar Odell Lovett, Rice University’s first president; Astrodome builder Judge Roy Hofheinz; and longtime television anchor Ron Stone.