The Old Place at Sam Houston Park in Houston, Texas

Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston is home to what's believed to be Harris County's oldest standing structure: a cedar log cabin called The Old Place, built around eighteen twenty-three. Atlas Obscura reports that the cabin was originally constructed by John R. Harris, an early Texas pioneer who founded Harrisburg, along the banks of Clear Creek—a setting that was muddy and populated by alligators, far removed from the city as we know it today. The cabin now sits among other historic structures at the park's Houston Heritage Society Museum, a reminder of how dramatically the landscape and settlement of the region have transformed over two centuries.

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