Richly illustrated with rare period photographs, Houston s Hermann Park: A Century of Community provides a vivid history of Houston s oldest and most important urban park. Author and historian Barrie Scardino Bradley sets Hermann Park in both a local and a national context as this grand park celebrates its centennial at the culmination of a remarkable twenty-year rejuvenation. As Bradley shows, Houston s development as a major American city may be traced in the outlines of the park s history. During the early nineteenth century, Houston leaders were most interested in commercial development...

This ambitious book tells a richly detailed story of Houston home life and culture from the settlement of Harrisburg and Houston in the 1820s and 1830s to World War I, when rapid economic development and modernization began to spell demolition for many notable nineteenth-century houses and public buildings. The authors discuss landscape and horticulture, the development of domestic architecture, the evolution of home interiors, and domestic life, and its influence on the social and cultural fabric of the city.