Magnolia Park & the Mexican-American East End

On the East End of Houston, between Buffalo Bayou and Brays Bayou, sits Magnolia Park — an old excursion grove that grew into its own little city and then into one of the earliest and most enduring centers of Mexican-American life in Houston. Founded around a park of magnolia trees in 1890, it was incorporated as a city in 1913 and swallowed by Houston in 1926, and through it all it became home to families who arrived to work the ship channel and the rail yards, many fleeing the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution. This drive traces the churches, plazas, and civic landmarks that anchored that community — the parish that ministered to a Spanish-speaking Houston, the kiosk-topped plaza that recalls a Mexican town square, and the old city hall of a place that once governed itself. It's a tour of a neighborhood that helped define what it means to be Mexican-American in this city.