Market Square Park - site of Houston's original public square

Market Square Park occupies the site of Houston's original public square and marketplace laid out when the Allen brothers founded the town in 1836. The park and surrounding blocks are within the footprint of the 1836 townsite survey and retain portions of the historic downtown street grid. Historical markers and preserved 19th-century commercial buildings at the site document its long role as the city's civic and commercial center. The space is recognized in local histories as one of the oldest surveyed civic sites in Houston.