Uncovering the Hidden Treasures of Houston The Best Arcades in the City

Even if you're a lifelong Houstonian, there may be a side to this city you've never seen. Houston's history is full of surprises, many of them revealed in the new book Secret Houston.

One hidden gem lies more than 200 feet below the lawn at Buffalo Bayou Park. The Buffalo Bayou Cistern was first built over 90 years ago to hold the city's drinking water.

The Cistern holds 15 million gallons of water, said William Dylan Powell, author of Secret Houston. It was used for decades and decades until eventually it developed a leak.

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Designed to resemble ancient Roman cisterns, the architectural marvel holds 221 concrete columns and spans the size of one and a half football fields. This once-forgotten relic is now open for public tours and also houses periodic art installations. The tour schedule and tickets are available at buffalobayou.org.

Another hidden gem allows you to travel back to the golden days of flight. The 1940 Air Terminal Museum is a relic of a bygone era when travelers dressed for the occasion. Located at Hobby Airport, it was the first commercial airport terminal in Houston, welcoming passengers from all over the world.

It's a fantastic example of art deco, institutional architecture, said Powell. Not everybody feels like commercial air flying is as luxurious and enjoyable as it used to be. So you go in there and you can see these old accoutrements and exhibits from different airlines that no longer exist.

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If you're up for a treasure hunt, another Houston secret lies at Hermann Park. For almost four decades, treasure hunters have been searching the park for a buried chest. Back in 1981, an author buried treasure in 12 U.S. cities to promote his fantasy novel The Secret. The clues to finding it are in his book.

One of them, he buried here in Houston, said Powell. The problem was, after only two of those things had been found, he died tragically in a car accident. He was the only one who knew where he buried them.

Near the Ship Channel bridge is another hidden spot with an important place in World War II history. A 5, 000-acre abandoned bomb bunker once housed over 200-million pounds of bullets, grenades, bombs and missiles for Allied forces.

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Right there, just off the East Beltway, you've got the San Jacinto Ordnance Depot, built in 1941, said Powell. It was sort of like, to Hitler, from Houston, with love. Enjoy the bombs. A bunker is built to keep people safe, big concrete walls. And this was actually built the other way around, they didn't want anything to go off.

The San Jacinto Ordnance Depot also supplied the Army and Navy during the Korean War. It was sold to a private corporation in 1964 and now lies abandoned.

Another Houston secret lurked for decades in three of Houston's bayous. In 2011, a search for a missing woman revealed 127 cars and trucks submerged in Brays, Sims and Buffalo Bayous.

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While they had one of these search boats out, they discovered there was a car there and they discovered another car and another, Powell said. Soon there were a lot of cars that were discovered in the Houston bayous.

Many of the cars were believed to be stolen or abandoned and inflatable bags were eventually used to float them to the top. For more Houston secrets, check out Secret Houston: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure.A city as big as Houston is bound to have some secrets (though it’s tough to keep those secrets in a city with millions of residents). If you’re into finding the little-known, weird, hidden gems a city has to offer, here are some of the best-kept secrets in Houston. (Search for Houston rentals now.)

Built in 1926, the 15-million-gallon reservoir located at Buffalo Bayou Park near downtown Houston was de-commissioned in the 1970’s and largely forgotten. Then, amid renovation efforts to the park in 2012, contractors opened up one of the hatches to access the space and discovered a beautiful cistern with rows and rows of columns running floor to ceiling. Today, the space has been re-purposed and opened to the public for tours. For just $5, visitors get to take a 30-minute tour to learn the history of the space and even hear the 17-second echo that results in the enclosed cistern. From December 2016 through June 2017, the cistern was home to a video art installation called Rain: Magdalena Fernandez, which projected light throughout the cistern.

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While you're near downtown visiting the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, take a detour and try to find the secret button that causes a bubble to “burp” in Buffalo Bayou. While I’m not going to give away the exact location, the non-descript red button is located very close to Sesquicentennial Park on the edge of downtown. Fun for grown-ups and kids alike, the button causes a large bubble to rise from the depths of the bayou. While it might not be appreciated, you can even try to time the bubble to take some bayou kayakers by surprise!

In north Houston, south of Aldine and tucked between I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road, lies Lucky Land. On more than two acres, Lucky Land is a serene environment dedicated to Asian culture and history. Reasonably priced with adult admission for just $10, Lucky Land sports a large replica Terracotta Army filling numerous trenches just like the army discovered in the Shaanxi province in China. Additionally, the Panda Village, a variety of kung fu statues, mini replicas of Chinese villages, happy Buddha statues and a large koi pond can fill your time at Lucky Land.

The swank Hotel ZaZa located in the Museum District is a favorite for locals looking to spend an afternoon at a nice pool. But if you’re interested in a staycation in one of the more unique hotel rooms in the city, ZaZa might be your place. On the third floor of the hotel is a room that many have dubbed the “Dungeon Room.” Officially named “Hard Times” and described by the hotel as one of its themed rooms, “Hard Times” is not marketed or clearly made available when trying to book a room. This room is roughly one-third the size of a normal room at the hotel and features a brick wall façade, strange art and a bed that’s attached to the walls by chains. While the room itself is odd, guests in the “Hard Times” room get to enjoy one of the largest balconies the hotel has to offer.

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Tucked away in Stafford on the southwest corner of the city, this beautiful Hindu temple is comprised of more than 33, 000 individual pieces of Turkish limestone and Italian marble that were carved in India before being shipped to and assembled in Houston. A place of worship and prayer for practicing Hindus, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandiris open to the public, complete with an exhibition to aid in the understanding of Hinduism. The mandir and its 22 acres provide visitors with beautiful grounds, a picturesque building and an opportunity to experience and learn about Hinduism.

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