The GoogleCenter of Houston

You might have heard about the GoogleCenter of the universe, which Wired reported on Wednesday — that's the spot you find if you zoom as close as you can on the default Google map. Turns out it's a field near Coffeyville, Kansas. Naturally, the -ists jumped on the bandwagon by finding the GoogleCenters of their hometowns: Gothamist did it first, and then Bostonist, Chicagoist, DCist and Seattlest followed suit.

So Houstonist is a little late to the party, but hey, better late than never. The GoogleCenter of Houston, we found out, is on Milam Street between Congress and Preston, across the street from Market Square — the approximate location of the Milam entrance to the Market Square Garage. We were excited when we first found the GoogleCenter because we thought it was in Market Square, on the spot where Houston's City Hall stood from 1841 to 1939, which would have been a nice historical tie-in. But alas, in true Houston fashion, it's actually a parking garage. The good news is that you can can get a fine view of the GoogleCenter from two of our favorite establishments: Treebeards and La Carafe. Head down there sometime and raise a glass to Houston's navel! (In an odd coincidence, some of the old bricks used to make new parking spaces in front of La Carafe were made in Coffeyville.)

Market Square isn't the geographic center of Houston, though. That's at 29 degrees 45 minutes 25 seconds north latitude, 95 degrees 22 minutes 12 seconds west longitude — a.k.a. the swimming pool of the Hyatt Regency hotel. If you're not staying at the Hyatt, you can still get a piece of the geographic center action — and a piece of excellent pesto chicken pizza — at the New York Pizzeria at 604 Polk Ave., which is under the pool, more or less.