Go Deep in Houston’s Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern

The Coordinates series celebrates lesser-known locales worth visiting across the state.

You could say Houston has a disposition toward removing architectural evidence of its past. Many of the city’s pre–World War II buildings are long gone, and dozens of notable cultural landmarks have been abandoned (see the Astrodome ). It seems that no level of historical importance can save a structure from the bulldozer. The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern stands as an exception. In 1926, W. R. Holway designed the 87,500-square-foot reservoir to hold 15 million gallons of water, to be used as a backup source for drinking or fire suppression. Today the decommissioned facility is an underground community space. The Cistern offers tours as well as art installations, light shows, and music perform