Kemah to turn old railroad depot into museum

KEMAH — A part of Kemah’s history sat hidden in a Clear Lake Shores backyard for years.

Clear Lake Shores resident Brian Hanby in July 2009 sold an old railroad depot to the city of Kemah for $7,500.

Hanby used the 12-by-25-foot building as a storage shed until Hurricane Ike’s storm surge inundated it.

The homeowners association Hanby was a member of refused to renew his membership unless he repaired the shed.

“A neighbor stopped by and said I might be screwing up something of significance if I tried to fix it myself,” Hanby said.

Kemah Historical Society members told Hanby the shed had been a railroad depot in Kemah.

The building now sits next to the Kemah Visitor’s Center, 603 Bradford Ave.

City council members last week authorized Mayor Matt Wiggins to negotiate a contract of no more than $48,000 to repair the building and build a deck connecting the depot and the visitors center.

Kemah’s hotel/motel fund will pay for the project.

The city will preserve the depot’s original tin roof and hardwood floors, replace windows and weather-proof the building.

Metal exhaust outlets for wood-burning stoves are visible on opposite ends of the building.

The building probably was built in the late 1930s and used to store tools and house railroad workers, Dyana Babik, Kemah Historical Society secretary, said.

Five trains ran between Galveston and Houston in the early 1900s, stopping along Galveston Bay in Kemah and Seabrook.

Immigrants coming through the port of Galveston would take trains to get to their final destinations.

More than 70 percent of the United States’ cotton crop came through Galveston and was dispersed through trains, Babik said.

City officials have not decided what the restored depot will house.

The city might use the building for offices or a small gallery displaying historic photos of Kemah, Babik said.

Contractors will finish the restoration project by December, Wiggins said.

“We lost a whole lot of historical property during Hurricane Ike,” he said.

“We’re real sensitive about preserving the history here.”