Houston, TX: Union Station and Houston Astros Daikin/Minute Maid Stadium

(Satellite)

Street View, May 2022

Threshold 360

Russell Kaye, Dec 2016

Ross Williams, Nov 2018

While researching the BNSF Milby Railyard, I discovered that the 1956 courthouse is gone, but the headhouse of the Union Station is extant. Any depot headhouse that has survived in a big city is worth noting. The Houston Astros retained the headhouse when they turned the train shed and passenger train tracks into their ballpark.

1955/57 Settegast Quad @ 24,000

The roof of the stadium is retractable. This view shows the roof rolled to the side on elevated rails.

Street View, Mar 2026

And this view shows the roof in the closed position. Most of the views with a closed roof have a cloudy sky and probably threaten rain. I wonder why it is closed in this view because there is not a cloud in the sky and they should not have to run the air conditioning in October considering how many views had the roof open. It looks like Minute Maid did not renew the naming rights. Daikin is "a leading air conditioning and refrigeration" company. (The quote comes from a Google Search results. I could not find where Google found that claim.)

Street View, Oct 2019

Another view of the roof in the open position. We can see the upper and lower parts of the roof have their own rails.

Street View, Mar 2026

And this view caught it in the closed position with the empty elevated rails.

Street View, Sep 2022

I knew that the Houston Astros moved out of the Astrodome, but I didn't know to where they moved until now.