Sam Houston statue Hermann Park
— a general on horseback, pointing east toward San Jacinto.
Not only on a wall.
Sam Houston statue Hermann Park, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A bronze rider on a traffic island at the head of Main Street, the horse mid-stride, Sam Houston's arm extended east. Enrico Cerracchio sculpted it; the city dedicated it on San Jacinto Day in 1925. The arch behind frames the long axis of Hermann Park toward the Mecom Fountain and the museum district. Joggers pass on the path beside it. The traffic light cycles. From the south steps the figure reads as small against the live oaks; from the curb it suddenly weighs eight tons.
The place, in three passes.
The Sam Houston Monument stands at the north entrance of Hermann Park, on the traffic island where Main Street meets Montrose Boulevard and Fannin. Hermann Park itself was given to the city in 1914 by oilman George H. Hermann and covers about 445 acres south of the museum district. The statue marks the head of the park's long ceremonial axis, which runs south past the Mecom Fountain to the Miller Outdoor Theatre and the McGovern Centennial Gardens. Sam Houston himself commanded the Texan army that won independence at San Jacinto in April 1836 and later served as president of the Republic, U.S. senator, and governor of Texas.
Italian-born sculptor Enrico Cerracchio modelled the figure between 1922 and 1925. The bronze was cast in Brooklyn, raised on a pink granite pedestal, and dedicated on San Jacinto Day, April 21, 1925, before a crowd of about 30,000. The horse stands mid-stride; Houston wears the uniform he wore at the battle and points east toward the San Jacinto battlefield, twenty miles down the ship channel. The pedestal carries a relief panel of the battle on its east face and inscriptions on the other three.
Hermann Park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and the monument is free to view at any hour. The closest METRORail stop is Hermann Park / Rice U on the Red Line, a one-minute walk. Parking on Sunday afternoons fills along Fannin and the museum-district lots; the park's own surface lot off Hermann Drive is the easier option. The Houston Museum of Natural Science, the zoo, and the Japanese Garden are all within a 15-minute walk of the statue.
