Pasadena

About Pasadena

Pasadena sits on the south bank of the Houston Ship Channel, a hard-working city of about 150,000 that likes to call itself the Birthplace of Texas: the last fighting of the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto spilled across its ground at Vince's Bridge. John H. Burnett of Galveston founded the town in 1893 and named it after Pasadena, California.

After the 1900 Galveston hurricane, Clara Barton sent strawberry plants to help local farmers recover, and by the 1930s Pasadena was shipping berries by the trainload. That heritage returns every May with the Strawberry Festival and its record-sized shortcake. Refineries later reshaped the skyline, and country music history was made at Gilley's, the honky-tonk where Urban Cowboy was filmed.

The best reasons to visit today lie on the green south side, where Armand Bayou Nature Center guards prairie, forest and marsh beside a wild paddling route. Add the old houses of Pasadena Heritage Park, a September rodeo and easy trips to Space Center Houston and Galveston Bay.