Main Street, 1928. Courtesy Trees for Houston.

history

The Live Oak Allée that lines Houston’s Main Street represents a vision of how a well-developed, civic landscape plan can survive despite nearly 100 years of change and development. At the turn of the century, Houston city leaders commissioned Massachusetts landscape architect, Arthur C. Comey, to prepare a comprehensive park plan for the city. Comey’s, Houston, Tentative Plans for its Development published in 1913, proposed an Olmsted-like system of parkway corridors along bayous to be linked by a parkway boulevard loop and other “parked thoroughfares.” Several significant features of the 1913 plan, including the development of Hermann Park, the Main Street traffic circle, and double rows of live oak plantings along Main Street between the park and Rice University were eventually executed.