Houston, Texas

Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States, with a census-estimated 2019 population of 2,320,268. It is the largest city in the Southern United States and on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the seat of Harris County and incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837. The city has a total area of 669 square miles (1,730 km2), making it also the eighth-largest U.S. city by land area. Houston was founded by land developers Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen on August 30, 1836, at which time it was incorporated as a town under Texas law with an original population of only 810 people. The rapidly growing port city drew thousands of new residents from across the United States and from abroad when it was incorporated as a city in 1837. The arrival of so many new residents quickly transformed Houston into one state's most ethnically diverse cities