The San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site includes the location of the Battle of San Jacinto, and the USS Texas. It is located off the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas near the city of Houston. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.A prominent feature of the park is the San Jacinto Monument. Visitors can take an elevator to the monument's observation deck for a view of Houston, the Houston Ship Channel and the USS Texas.HistoryThe beginnings of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic site trace to the early 1880s, when the State of Texas purchased ten acres along Buffalo Bayou in preparation for the fiftieth anniversary of the Texas Revolution. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) pressured the Texas Legislature for more appropriations for San Jacinto. In 1897, Texas State Senator Waller Thomas Burns of Houston helped to pass legislation to fund $10,000 to establish a public park. The money was used to purchase an additional 336 acres of land at San Jacinto. The state appropriated another $25,000 in 1907 for improvements at the battleground and officially named it San Jacinto State Park, the first official state park in Texas. A governor appointed local commission managed the park and reported to the State Board of Control. More state-assisted improvements came to the park in preparation for the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston. A grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Coastal Impact Assistance Program will be funding a $2.6 million construction project for improvements to the site's seawall, with an anticipated finish date of December 31, 2016.
