Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour. Scroll down or click here to register.
The area now known as the Museum District became one of the most fashionable parts of Houston in the 1920s thanks to the opening of Rice University, Hermann Park and the Museum of Fine Arts. As the area developed, swathes of prairie were divided into fashionable neighborhoods that remain desirable nearly a century later.
This 90-minute, docent-guided walking tour explores two of those neighborhoods, Shadowlawn and Waverly Court. Both were built as upscale enclaves in the early 1920s, based on the “private place” neighborhoods of St. Louis. As well-to-do Houstonians moved to the new developments, they hired some of the city’s top architects to design their homes, including William Ward Watkin, John F. Staub and J.W. Northrop Jr. Later construction, including the mid-century homes of architects Anderson Todd and S.I. Morris, brought a contemporary touch to the area. These homes, and the stories of their builders and the design influences that shaped them, offer a fascinating look into Houston’s growth and developing 20th-century architectural tastes.
This is an exterior architecture tour only. The tour will not go inside any buildings. There are no public restrooms along the tour route.
About the tour
Admission is $10 per person for the general public ($7 for Preservation Houston members and students.) Children 11 years old and under are admitted free.
Advance ticket purchase is required. Reservations are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. We are not able to accommodate walk-ups the day of the tour. There are no refunds for tour reservations.
Registrants will receive parking and check-in information via e-mail.
Face masks are optional for all fully vaccinated individuals, including docents. We require that tourgoers who are not fully vaccinated remain masked at all times during the tour, including at check in. This policy may change based on recommendations from the CDC and local health officials.
In the event of inclement weather that prevents the tour from being offered as planned, we will notify registrants as far in advance as possible about their options to attend a rescheduled tour or transfer their reservations to another Preservation Houston tour.
Reserve your tickets now
Do you have an Architecture Walks pass?
If you have joined Preservation Houston and received a pass for a free Architecture Walk since February 2020, you may redeem the pass for admission to this tour. E-mail us and we'll be happy to help.
Passes are redeemable subject to ticket availability.