Art Centers, Historic Sites & Museums in Houston

Houston is full of historic sites and museums to offer its guests.  You will have art museums, historic museums, and even a museum dedicated to the Holocaust to browse through.  Below you will find information about some of the museums Houston has to offer.  If you need help with your hotel, car rental or airfare reservations please use the links to the left and save up to 40%.

Historical Sites & Museums

Contemporary Arts Museum - This unique, silver-aluminum parallelogram presents temporary exhibitions of modern art and industrial design as well as films. The largest contemporary arts museum in the Southwest, which completed massive renovations in 1997, focuses on American works created in the past 40 years. (713) 284-8250

George Ranch Historical Park - You can experience the life of four generations of a Texas family on this 400-acre outdoor museum, a working cattle ranch. Wander through a restored 1820s pioneer farm, an 1880s Victorian mansion, an 1890s cowboy encampment, and a 1930s ranch house. Savor Victorian-style tea on the porch of an 1890s mansion, or sit around the campfire with cowboys during a roundup and watch crafts demonstrations such as rope twisting. Picnic areas are provided.  (281) 545-9212

Houston Museum of Natural Science - From the diplodocus to the space rocket, from oil wells to artificial earthquakes, the cornerstone of this city's Museum District is one of the largest and most impressive natural science museums in the country. Special highlights include the Hall of Medical Science with giant models of the human body, the Burke Baker Planetarium, where visitors follow the paths of comets and planetary motions, and the Cockrell Butterfly Center, which houses 2,000 real butterflies in a six-story glass cone. Ask about the planetarium's after-hours Rock Laser Shows. (713) 639-4629

Museum of Fine Arts - The museum is remarkable for the completeness of its enormous collection; it is housed in a complicated series of wings and galleries, many designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Renaissance and 18th-century art, and Impressionist and Postimpressionist works are particularly well represented. (713) 639-7300

Sam Houston Historical Park - Part of the modern downtown area, this park holds eight of the city's oldest structures, restored and furnished in 19th-century fashion. The buildings, open for guided tours, reflect a range of styles and uses, and include an 1847 brick house and 1891 church. The Heritage Museum features permanent exhibits on texas history and a complete country store. (713) 655-1912

Byzantine Fresco Chapel - This museum houses two 13th-century frescoes stolen from a church in Cyprus. When recovered, the frescoes, originally in the dome and apse of the church's votive chapel, had been cut into 38 fragments. It was the Menil Foundation of Houston that undertook their costly restoration, which explains their display here -- they are on long-term loan by the Greek Orthodox Church and the Republic of Cyprus as a gesture of gratitude. Suspended in a black reliquary box are frosted-glass panels replicating the tiny chapel structure. (713) 521-3990

Holocaust Museum Houston - Housed in a stark, cylindrical edifice, the Holocaust Museum Houston is an education center as well as a memorial. The main exhibit, "Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers," can be viewed individually or by tour. The 30-minute film Voices is a moving oral history by local survivors.: (713) 942-8000

Rothko Chapel - In a park next to the Menil Collection, the moody chapel is an octagonal sanctuary designed by Philip Johnson. The 14 Mark Rothko paintings that panel the chapel's walls at first glance look like simple black canvases; only when you come close can you see the subtle coloring. Outside the ecumenical chapel is Barnett Newman's sculpture Broken Obelisk, which symbolizes the life and assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. : (713) 524-9839

Lawndale Art Center - is a non-profit alternative space for the exhibition of contemporary works in all media, unique in its focus on Houston area artists. Founded in 1979, Lawndale has owned its present location on Main Street in Houston's Museum District since 1993. With three galleries in its locally significant Art Deco building, Lawndale includes close to 500 artists annually in changing exhibitions. This Information is brought to you by Houston water damage restoration here you can visit there site at Restorationhere.com