Pasadena, Texas map
29.69° N · 95.21° W · Harris County · elev. ~30 ft · Central Time
Pasadena is the 20th-largest city in Texas and the second-largest city in Harris County after Houston, which wraps around its western and northern sides. It runs from the south bank of the Houston Ship Channel down to Armand Bayou, and the refineries at its top end are the reason it exists at its present size.
The waterway along the north of the frame is the Houston Ship Channel. SH-225 runs parallel to it; Beltway 8 crosses north–south on the east side.
Where Pasadena is in Texas
Pasadena lies entirely inside Harris County, southeast of Houston and about 12 miles from downtown by way of SH-225 and I-45. Its northern boundary is the Houston Ship Channel; Deer Park and then La Porte continue east along the same waterway; South Houston and Houston's Hobby Airport neighborhoods sit to the west; and the southern tip reaches the Clear Lake area near Armand Bayou.
Unlike most of the cities that ring Houston, Pasadena is not a bedroom suburb that filled in later. It was laid out in 1893 on farmland and named after Pasadena, California; its first cash crop was strawberries, grown on the delta soils south of the bayou. Strawberry Road, the long north–south street through the middle of the city, keeps the name, and so does the annual strawberry festival.
The 1900s brought the ship channel, and the channel brought oil. The stretch of water from the Turning Basin east past Pasadena and Deer Park to Baytown became the densest concentration of refining and petrochemical plants in the United States, and Pasadena's northern third is given over to it.
Freeways and main streets
- SH-225 (La Porte Freeway) – the east–west freeway across the north of the city, from I-610 in Houston past the refineries to La Porte and SH-146.
- Beltway 8 / Sam Houston Tollway – crosses the eastern side north–south, carrying the Sam Houston Ship Channel Bridge over the water toward Baytown.
- I-45 (Gulf Freeway) – three to five miles west of the city line; the route to downtown Houston one way and Galveston the other.
- Spencer Highway – the main east–west arterial through the older neighborhoods, parallel to and south of SH-225.
- Fairmont Parkway – the newer east–west arterial across the southern half, running from Beltway 8 east to SH-146.
- Strawberry Road / Red Bluff Road – the two north–south streets that carry local traffic from the ship channel down to Fairmont.
- SH-3 and Old Galveston Road – the older southeast route along the west edge toward Webster and NASA Road 1.
Areas and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Ship channel industrial belt | Refineries, tank farms and terminals along the north edge, reached from SH-225 |
| Old Pasadena / Southmore | The original grid south of SH-225, city hall, Shaw Avenue and Southmore Avenue |
| Strawberry Road corridor | North–south commercial spine, the fairgrounds and Pasadena Convention Center |
| Golden Acres | East-side neighborhood between Red Bluff Road and the Deer Park line |
| Fairmont Park | Postwar subdivisions along Fairmont Parkway in the southern half |
| Armand Bayou / Bay Area Blvd | The nature center and the wooded southeastern tip toward Clear Lake |
| San Jacinto College Central | Campus on Spencer Highway, the city's largest school |
| Deer Park and La Porte (east) | Separate cities continuing the SH-225 industrial corridor |
The bayou side and the battleground
The southern end of Pasadena is the opposite of the northern end. Armand Bayou Nature Center, off Bay Area Boulevard, protects roughly 2,500 acres of bottomland forest, prairie and marsh along the bayou — one of the largest pieces of urban wilderness anywhere on the Gulf Coast, and a short drive from refineries running around the clock.
Just east of the city, where Buffalo Bayou meets the San Jacinto River, is the San Jacinto Battleground, where Texas independence was decided in April 1836. The monument and the battleship Texas berth are reached from SH-225 by turning north on SH-134 through Deer Park. Pasadena's own best-known landmark was Gilley's, the club that gave Urban Cowboy its setting in 1980; it burned in 1990 and the site is gone.
Distances from Pasadena
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Houston | 12 | SH-225 W / I-45 N |
| Sugar Land | 30 | Beltway 8 S / US-59 W |
| Galveston | 40 | SH-146 S / I-45 S |
| The Woodlands | 45 | Beltway 8 N / I-45 N |
| Conroe | 55 | Beltway 8 N / I-45 N |
| Beaumont | 80 | Beltway 8 N / I-10 E |
| Port Arthur | 90 | SH-146 N / I-10 E / SH-73 |