Old Sylvan Beach and the Pavilions

Book excerpt: Sylvan Beach is synonymous with bathing beauties, moonlit pavilions, the jitterbug, the Charleston, and a train called the Moonlight Express, as well as picnics, carnivals, music, romance, love, and legend. The unlikely truth is that familiarity and age can make our most beautiful treasures banal if we do not pause to remember and observe and venerate the events and moments when we first saw, or most appreciated, a place like Sylvan Beach. For this reason, we ask you to come back with us to Sylvan Beach, where, for over 100 years, Houston and much of Texas has come to play, dance, pray, fall in love, relax, or simply swim in the bay. Today, the park and its pavilion are enjoying renewed popularity.