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Thriving tunnel system exists beneath downtown Houston
  
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By Marene Gustin
Twenty feet beneath the concrete towers and asphalt of downtown, lies a whole other Houston.
Filled with thousands of pedestrians, stores, dentists, banks, shoe hospitals, a post office, three Starbucks and tons of restaurants, the seven-mile tunnel system snakes beneath the city and, occasionally, arches across skywalks from downtown building to downtown building. It’s a fast, and air-conditioned, way to get around 95 blocks in the inner city known simply as the Tunnel.
“It’s great if it’s raining or hot out,” said Cheryl Felps, who works downtown in the Travis Towers.
Her building isn’t directly connected to the tunnel system, but she and her coworkers cross over to Macy’s, which is connected, and head underground for lunch on a regular basis.
“Ninfa’s Express,” she said, “Becks Prime and Salata, which has great wraps. You can find everything to eat down there.”
Sandra Lord, aka “The Tunnel lady,” discovered the underground world when she worked in an office building downtown in 1984. She didn’t think much of it back then.
“I didn’t really like being underground,” she said. “And it wasn’t as extensive in July of 1984 as it is now, nor as attractive. The Tunnel Loop didn't exist until July 1994. There were cafeterias instead of food courts and the walls of the Tunnel under the Esperson Buildings were covered in dark maroon carpeting. And the signage, where it existed, wasn't very good.”
In 1988 she started doing walking tours for Leisure Learning and then for a seniors group downtown. Pretty soon she realized the advantage of the tunnel system and a business was born.
Today, Lord’s Discover Houston Tours offers weekday Tunnel Walk & Rail Tours and has added popular tours of ghostly sightings such as the Broomstick Adventures to local cemeteries, the Blood & Money Tour that visits sites from famous Houstonians’ grisly deaths, and her wildly popular holiday tours, the Halloween-themed Ghost Walk and Christmas Holiday Tours. In all, 3,600 tours in 20 years.
But the Tunnel is at the heart of her business; and she’s become an expert on the system.
“I can tell where I am just by looking at the floors,” Lord said. “It’s really just a system of connected basements, and each building has its own décor. The Wells Fargo Plaza has a white marble floor and the Houston Club Building is the only one left with black linoleum. Which is kind fun because kids don’t even know what linoleum is any more.”
Lord’s research shows that the first tunnel ran a short distance under Fannin Street between Texas and Capitol and connected former Texas Governor Ross Sterling’s 1926 Post-Dispatch Building (now The Magnolia Hotel) with another one of his buildings, the 1931 Sterling Building.
When Will Horwitz decided to air-condition his three downtown vaudeville theaters, he also linked them via underground tunnels. Each section of tunnel is privately owned by the building above, except for the city section that connects the Theater District and other city owned buildings. Over the years, some tunnels were abandoned but in the boom of the 70s and 80s the system was revived and more and more buildings were added. Even skywalks were added to the system, which today allows one to get around in air-conditioned, rain-free bliss through most of downtown.
“I just love what I do,” Lord said. “People who aren’t from Houston, or cities where they have tunnel systems, are always amazed at the extent of it. Sometimes I have natives call to schedule a tour because they have out of town guests. I know the tour is a success when 15 minutes into it Houstonians say, ‘I didn’t know this!’ I just love discovering Houston.”
See the Tunnel
Houston’s tunnel system is open Monday through Friday during regular business hours and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The city- run portion connecting the Theater District is open 24/7. Sandra Lord’s Discover Houston Tours (www.discoverhoustontours.com, (713) 222-9255) has regular tours during the week or you can download a tunnel map from www.houstondowntown.com and cruise the depths on your own. And, there’s a really cool interactive map and list of all the businesses and tunnel entrances at www.houstontunnels.com.
Other Discover Houston Tours
Tunnel Walk & Rail Tours of Downtown and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston or the Houston Museum of Natural Science
Broomstick Adventures
Ghost Walk (October only)
Downtown Holiday Walk & Rail Tour
Blood & Money Tour
Lifestyles of Houston’s Rich & Famous Tours
See www.discoverhoustontours.com for more information about the tours.
Filled with thousands of pedestrians, stores, dentists, banks, shoe hospitals, a post office, three Starbucks and tons of restaurants, the seven-mile tunnel system snakes beneath the city and, occasionally, arches across skywalks from downtown building to downtown building. It’s a fast, and air-conditioned, way to get around 95 blocks in the inner city known simply as the Tunnel.
“It’s great if it’s raining or hot out,” said Cheryl Felps, who works downtown in the Travis Towers.
Her building isn’t directly connected to the tunnel system, but she and her coworkers cross over to Macy’s, which is connected, and head underground for lunch on a regular basis.
“Ninfa’s Express,” she said, “Becks Prime and Salata, which has great wraps. You can find everything to eat down there.”
Sandra Lord, aka “The Tunnel lady,” discovered the underground world when she worked in an office building downtown in 1984. She didn’t think much of it back then.
“I didn’t really like being underground,” she said. “And it wasn’t as extensive in July of 1984 as it is now, nor as attractive. The Tunnel Loop didn't exist until July 1994. There were cafeterias instead of food courts and the walls of the Tunnel under the Esperson Buildings were covered in dark maroon carpeting. And the signage, where it existed, wasn't very good.”
In 1988 she started doing walking tours for Leisure Learning and then for a seniors group downtown. Pretty soon she realized the advantage of the tunnel system and a business was born.
Today, Lord’s Discover Houston Tours offers weekday Tunnel Walk & Rail Tours and has added popular tours of ghostly sightings such as the Broomstick Adventures to local cemeteries, the Blood & Money Tour that visits sites from famous Houstonians’ grisly deaths, and her wildly popular holiday tours, the Halloween-themed Ghost Walk and Christmas Holiday Tours. In all, 3,600 tours in 20 years.
But the Tunnel is at the heart of her business; and she’s become an expert on the system.
“I can tell where I am just by looking at the floors,” Lord said. “It’s really just a system of connected basements, and each building has its own décor. The Wells Fargo Plaza has a white marble floor and the Houston Club Building is the only one left with black linoleum. Which is kind fun because kids don’t even know what linoleum is any more.”
Lord’s research shows that the first tunnel ran a short distance under Fannin Street between Texas and Capitol and connected former Texas Governor Ross Sterling’s 1926 Post-Dispatch Building (now The Magnolia Hotel) with another one of his buildings, the 1931 Sterling Building.
When Will Horwitz decided to air-condition his three downtown vaudeville theaters, he also linked them via underground tunnels. Each section of tunnel is privately owned by the building above, except for the city section that connects the Theater District and other city owned buildings. Over the years, some tunnels were abandoned but in the boom of the 70s and 80s the system was revived and more and more buildings were added. Even skywalks were added to the system, which today allows one to get around in air-conditioned, rain-free bliss through most of downtown.
“I just love what I do,” Lord said. “People who aren’t from Houston, or cities where they have tunnel systems, are always amazed at the extent of it. Sometimes I have natives call to schedule a tour because they have out of town guests. I know the tour is a success when 15 minutes into it Houstonians say, ‘I didn’t know this!’ I just love discovering Houston.”
See the Tunnel
Houston’s tunnel system is open Monday through Friday during regular business hours and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The city- run portion connecting the Theater District is open 24/7. Sandra Lord’s Discover Houston Tours (www.discoverhoustontours.com, (713) 222-9255) has regular tours during the week or you can download a tunnel map from www.houstondowntown.com and cruise the depths on your own. And, there’s a really cool interactive map and list of all the businesses and tunnel entrances at www.houstontunnels.com.
Other Discover Houston Tours
Tunnel Walk & Rail Tours of Downtown and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston or the Houston Museum of Natural Science
Broomstick Adventures
Ghost Walk (October only)
Downtown Holiday Walk & Rail Tour
Blood & Money Tour
Lifestyles of Houston’s Rich & Famous Tours
See www.discoverhoustontours.com for more information about the tours.
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