Allen's Landing Park

The white limestone bulkheads marking the edge of Buffalo Bayou identify Allen's Landing. This narrow slip of water is where Augustus and John Allen stepped off a boat in August eighteen thirty-six to claim the land that became Houston. They paid just over five thousand dollars for six thousand acres of swampy forest. For decades, steamboats crowded this exact bend, offloading crates of dry goods and hauling away bales of cotton. Today, the bayou flows quiet, save for the occasional kayak paddle.