Houston

I

Introduction

Houston, city in southeastern Texas and the seat of Harris County. Located at the head of the Houston Ship Channel, which links the city to the Gulf of Mexico, Houston is an inland seaport and a major financial, distribution, and manufacturing center for the southern United States. At the time of the 2000 census, it was the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the country, behind New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The terrain is level and drains into a number of bayous and canals. The city has a humid coastal climate, with hot summers and very mild winters. Houston was named for Sam Houston, a distinguished military leader and hero of the Texas Revolution (1835-1836).

II

Houston and Its Metropolitan Area

The city of Houston covers a land area of 1397.6 sq km (539.6 sq mi). The Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area includes the counties of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller. In addition to Houston, the area includes Pasadena, Texas City, Galveston, Brazoria, and many other cities and communities.

Houston has sprawled into nearby counties, growing primarily to the north and west. The city is the largest in the country without zoning laws, so businesses are allowed to operate within residential neighborhoods. Despite the lack of zoning laws, the industrial and residential regions are generally separated from one another because the primary industrial section developed and remains along the ship canal, while residential neighborhoods developed mostly outside this area. However, some overlap does occur.

Interstate 610, known as the Loop Freeway, forms a belt around all of central Houston. At its core is the central business area, located just south of Buffalo Bayou, enclosed by Interstate 45 and U.S. Highway 59. The area is known for its distinctive contemporary architecture and includes buildings such as the Chase Tower (1982), designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei; and the Bank of America Center (1984) and Pennzoil Place (1976), designed by American architect Philip C. Johnson. The Market Square Historic District on Main Street, the site of the city’s original downtown, contains a number of important buildings and was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was built in 1879 for one of the city’s oldest black congregations and marks the Old Fourth Ward, Houston’s first predominantly black neighborhood.

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Houston’s lower-income neighborhoods lie to the south and southeast of the downtown, along the railroad lines and the ship channel. The affluent neighborhoods are to the west and southwest, and include Tanglewood, the home of former U.S. President George Bush (1989-1993). Outside the Loop Freeway is The Galleria, a shopping mall with an ice-skating rink. The focal point of the Galleria area, as it is known, is the Williams Tower (1985), designed by Philip C. Johnson and one of the tallest suburban office buildings in the country.

III

Economy

Situated near major petroleum and natural-gas fields, Houston is the center of the national petroleum industry. The metropolitan region leads the nation in petrochemical manufacturing and refining, and consequently ranks first in the manufacture of agricultural chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides. Houston is the world’s primary producer of oil-field equipment—tools used in drilling for oil. Companies based in Houston and other Texas cities have traditionally supplied technology and expertise to the petroleum companies of the Middle East and have made similar connections to governments involved in exploration and drilling in Southeast Asia. Other important manufactures in Houston include processed foods, electrical and electronic machinery, cement, and steel. Houston also has mills for rice grown in the surrounding area.

Houston’s specialized education and training facilities provide an extraordinary economic resource. Most economists consider the expansion of technological research and the growth of the medical complexes to be the result of the collapse of petroleum prices in the 1980s and the resulting forced diversification of the region’s economic base. The city’s centers of research and technology include the Texas Medical Center, which is world-renowned for its pioneering work in organ transplants (see Medical Transplantation). The center includes 13 hospitals and two medical schools among its more than 40 institutions. Other local facilities are the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Houston Advanced Research Center, an organization funded by grants, which links technology to commercial uses; and the nearby Texas A&M University at Galveston, which along with the university’s main campus in College Station, has carried out important work in marine biology, oceanography, and other marine-related sciences.

The service and trade sectors account for the largest percentages of total employment, while government ranks third. Financial services—banking, insurance, and real estate—are an important contributor to the city’s economy. The Houston Port is among the nation’s busiest for total exports and foreign trade, with petroleum, petrochemicals, and organic chemicals leading the list of exports. The Houston Ship Channel, which runs a length of 84 km (52 mi), connects the city to the primary shipping lanes of the world through the Bay of Galveston, the Gulf portion of the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Gulf of Mexico. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect in 1994 and eliminates most tariffs on trade between the United States, Mexico, and Canada, enhanced the port’s importance.

Several railroad lines and highways serve Houston. The Houston Intercontinental Airport is second in the state in total passenger service, while the older William P. Hobby Airport, which handles only domestic flights, is third. The Houston Chronicle is the primary daily newspaper in the city. KUHT, the nation’s first public television station, was founded in 1953 in Houston.

IV

Population

Houston’s population climbed from 1,630,553 in 1990 to 1,953,631 in 2000. In 2005, its population was estimated at 2,016,582. The Houston Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area grew from 3,731,000 in 1990 to 4,670,000 in 2000.

Houston is a racially and ethnically diverse city. According to the 2000 census, whites constituted 49.3 percent of Houston’s population; blacks, 25.3 percent; Asians, 5.3 percent; Native Americans, 0.4 percent; Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, 0.1 percent; and people of mixed heritage or not reporting race, 19.6 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, represented 37.4 percent of the population.

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