Travel

Suburbia in Color

Sugar Land offers a multicultural flavor that makes it feel like a sweet home for all.

by Landry Allred
photos by Sonja Sommerfeld

When I was 1 year old, I was adopted from China by a white family and grew up around people who looked nothing like me. When one of my college best friends, who is half-Chinese, mentioned that Austin was a culture shock to her because her hometown Sugar Land was so ethnically diverse, I had to see it for myself.

Most people may know Sugar Land as the birthplace of the Imperial Sugar Company, but this southeast Texas city has more than meets the eye. Today, Sugar Land, with its master-planned communities and brick-clad establishments, welcomes any individual — minority or majority — to enjoy the tight-knit charm of the city. Everybody feels like family here.

Sugar Land native Kaelyn, our friend Courtney and I find ourselves in Sugar Land on a Friday evening after a three-hour drive from Austin. We drop off our bags at her dad’s house and quickly make our way to the Sugar Land Town Square. We are hungry.

During my first steps on the streets of Sugar Land, the people I see are not white, which is a bit shocking. As we continue, I see people from all different cultures, some eating together outside at State Fare Kitchen and Bar and others enjoying a drink at Baker St. Pub and Grill.

Though the white community is the largest ethnic group in Sugar Land, it makes up less than half of the population. Asian, Hispanic, Black and other ethnic communities make up the rest of the population, with the Asian community accounting for most. As expected, these numbers accurately represented my experience in Sugar Land.

We add our names on the waitlist for State Fare and stroll the square for a bit. Sugar Land City Hall lies at the heart of the square with a green, turf lawn sprawled in front of it. A river-shaped concrete path engraved with Sugar Land’s history runs through the lawn. In front of the lawn sits a large fountain with a statue depicting Stephen F. Austin rising from the Brazos River while on horseback. Peppered throughout are large, plastic lounge chairs, all in funky shapes with a diverse array of families sitting on them, happily socializing.

When our table is ready, we are seated adjacent to a large family of Black women and their children having the time of their lives. Even without being a local, the sense of community is strong in the room.

After much internal conflict, I finally settle on the King Ranch Chicken Spaghetti — an interesting yet delicious combination of baked tortilla strips and chicken spaghetti. An hour or so after devouring as many carbs as I can, we take our leftovers to-go and drive toward the Imperial Sugar Mill.

Kaelyn points out a prayer and gathering center for Shia Ismaili Muslims that is down the street from a Church of Christ. Throughout the remainder of the trip, this religious coexistence seems to be a common theme.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir serves Houston’s Hindu population.

Cullinan Park’s 754 acres attract nature enthusiasts

Sugar Land began as a company town for Imperial Sugar

Whiskey Cake offers farm-fresh comfort food

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The abandoned sugar mill is large and ominous with glazed-over windows, looking as if a ghost could appear in one and quickly vanish. Kaelyn tells me the city has been trying to turn the second floor into a museum for several years, but it has yet to be completed and open to the public. The original sugar mill was built in 1843 on the Oakland Plantation, giving birth to the Imperial Sugar Company. Eventually, the mill was rebuilt along with other silos and buildings for processing and refining where the current mill stands today on Kempner Street. In 2003, the refinery was officially closed.

Standing outside of the mill, I snap a few photos of the neon-lit words at the top of the Char House: Imperial Sugar. After a few failed attempts at getting the lighting right, I get back in the car and we retreat to her dad’s house for the night, which is located in a city outside of Sugar Land. Though Kaelyn grew up in Sugar Land, her dad and stepmom downsized once Kaelyn and her brother left for college. We fall asleep ready for our full day of Sugar Land to come.

We leave midmorning for brunch at Jupiter Pizza and Waffles Co. — an odd mix but surprisingly tasty. I order the wafflettes, which are chicken bites and mini-Belgian waffles. We eat quickly and find ourselves standing at Sugar Land Town Square again, but this time it’s light outside. The square is as busy as it was at night, still inviting all communities to enjoy the humidity of southeast Texas.

We make a pit stop at the Imperial Farmer’s Market where we’re greeted by a variety of vendors selling granola, gumbo, homemade clothing, Indian cuisine, tamales, bones for dogs and French macarons. Kaelyn says it used to be hosted in the sugar mill parking lot but was moved to the Imperial Park Recreation Center parking lot a few years ago.

After leaving the farmer’s market, we drive to Stafford — a smaller city outside Sugar Land — to see a 73-foot-tall Hindu temple made of Turkish limestone and Italian marble that sits in the midst of suburbia. The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was inaugurated in 2004 as a traditional Hindu temple. 

A T. rex stands tall at the Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land

Unfortunately, the temple is temporarily closed when we arrive, so we only stay for a bit to take some photos outside the gates. After stopping by local coffee shop BlendIn for a caffeine boost, we plan to go to Cullinan Park, one of the largest natural parks in the Houston area, but it starts to sprinkle a bit. Rather than return to our accommodations, we make the more productive and educational decision to visit Sugar Land’s branch of the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Pulling up to the museum, I notice it’s another brick building.

“This used to be a prison, but they turned it into a museum,” Kaelyn says. In the early 20th century, the facility was called the Imperial Prison Farm. In 1939, the farm was rebuilt and renamed the Central State Prison Farm, nicknamed “Two Camp” by residents and staff. During this time, the prison farm housed mainly Black inmates. In 2009, the main unit reopened as the museum.

Walking into the museum today, you can hardly tell it was once a place of sorrow and strife. As soon as you pass the ticket counter and walk into the main room, a giant skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex stands tall, reaching nearly to the second floor. To the left on the back wall, a television displays a live stream of anyone walking near it, with animated dinosaurs moving in and out of the frame — a great activity for kids, but I will admit, it did keep us 20-somethings occupied for some time.

The museum has only two floors with exhibits, so we take our time walking and reading about different aspects of natural science and enjoying the interactive activities, such as a mini-display that showcases how solar power works.

In one room upstairs, a staff member gives us plastic gloves and tells us we can touch pretty much anything in the exhibit, which is filled with taxidermied animals and historical artifacts. Of course, we make sure to touch every single thing that is possibly allowed.

After returning our gloves and briefly walking through the gift shop, we leave the museum to visit Cullinan Park. While walking across the wooden bridges that sit above waters where alligators are rumored to be lying in wait, we pass by a woman wearing a hijab with her young son, a group of young Black men and a Hispanic family. We decide to walk back to the front of the park and take the Piney Trail where we see wildlife in doses — some leafcutter ants walking in a line and carrying leaves one-by-one, a blue jay peering from the treetops and a 100-foot pecan tree with twisting branches.

As the sun goes down, we make our way back to the car and head straight to the town square to Japaneiro’s — a sushi bistro and Latin grill — for dinner. I play it safe to tame my stomach and order a sushi roll with cooked meat, and we reflect on the day under the string lights outside.

The next morning after stopping at Whiskey Cake in Katy for breakfast, we head back home. Throughout the trip and after reflecting on my time in Sugar Land, I slowly came to realize how natural the coexistence of cultures felt there. Each restaurant and store we walked past wasn’t trying to fit a trend and force a space where diversity could thrive; what made Sugar Land feel truly special was the unforced, casual cohesiveness of the people in the city.

Where immigrants found this suburbia to call home, I found a reminder that communities, no matter how different, can coexist when focusing on the main aspect of life we all share — our humanity.