Photo by Cyndy Slovak-Barton

by KIM HILSENBECK

About 100 people gathered under massive oak trees on Friday to mark the grand re-opening of two of the oldest buildings in Buda.

Painted white with blue trim, the Stagecoach House and Onion Creek Post Office sit at the entrance to the Historic Stagecoach Park on Main Street. Mary Giberson, one of the original advocates for restoring the property, cut the white ribbon officially opening the buildings to the public.

Giberson said the event was the culmination of 30 years of work and fundraising. At one point, Giberson said, the property had almost gone to a developer to become an RV park. “So, hallelujah,” she said.

The Stagecoach House, also known as the McElroy-Severn House, and the Onion Creek Post Office behind it, are both listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The main house will serve as Buda city offices, including Tourism Director Alisha Burrow’s new space, as well as an area for public meetings and possibly special events in the future. The completion of the Stagecoach House and Onion Creek Post Office sets the tone for other historic restorations in town, Burrow said.

“It’s so important that Buda preserve its history and buildings,” she said.

Visitors to the property will experience local history, maps and artifacts. The interior of the Stagecoach House, built in 1875, features high ceilings, hardwood floors and hand-sewn drapes.

The building is an example of late 19th-century modified center-passage or “dogtrot” dwellings of the period and is one of the few buildings remaining from Buda’s early pre-railroad development.

The Onion Creek Post Office was completed in 1876 when the Manchaca Springs Post Office closed and the stagecoach stop was moved west along Onion Creek.

Giberson, a member of the Hays County Historical Commission, is also a co-author of “People and Places In and Around Historic Buda.” Part of her profit from the book goes to the Stagecoach House and Onion Creek Post Office. She also worked to create historical calendars from 1992 to 1997 to raise funds for the restoration.

A grant from Hays County paid for much of the project. Burrow said the funds for the interior décor came from Buda’s hotel occupancy tax.

Several local officials spoke during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and Burrow read resolutions and proclamations from U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin; state Rep. Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs; and Gov. Rick Perry.