Buda Parks director Jack Jones points out some of the renovations a city contractor will perform on the historic Stagecoach House. The Stagecoach House will serve as a visitors center for Buda. (Photo by Jen Biundo)
by JENNIFER BIUNDO
From the 1840s through the 1880s, before the International-Great Northern Railroad chugged its way south of Austin, postal workers carried mail on horse-drawn stagecoaches through the often-perilous terrain.
Buda’s frontier history will get a new shot of life as the city begins work to restore the original post office. The tiny stone building, lintels gracefully engraved with the date 1876, sits behind a larger house constructed in 1875. The buildings were posted to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Earlier this month, Buda councilmembers approved the $326,000 bid with Tolero Construction to renovate the crumbling Stagecoach House and Onion Creek Post Office into city offices and a museum. It’s the final phase of the project to develop the surrounding 51 acres into a sprawling nature park anchored by the historic post office.
“The renovation of the house provides a gateway into downtown Buda and provides tourists and residents a look into Buda’s past,” said Buda Parks Director Jack Jones. “Folks can stop in and get a little bit of the history of downtown Buda and also find out what’s happening today.”
In the wide entrance hallway of the Stagecoach House, visitors will be greeted with museum displays of local artifacts and a written history of the railroad town. Other rooms will hold the city’s tourism information center and parks and recreation offices, along with a small conference center.
The contractors will attempt to keep as many of the original materials as possible, Jones said, including the wood beam floors, window casings and rough-hewn cedar post rafters.
The house itself has seen a number of renovations over the years as late as the 1940s, with previous owners adding new rooms and installing electrical lighting.
But it won’t be a completely faithful restoration. To use the space as city offices, contractors will include anachronisms like ADA-compliant bathrooms. That concerns some historical preservationists, who would prefer to see the buildings rehabbed but kept essentially unchanged.
Just to Buda’s north, the historic Kyle Train Depot is on track to a complete historical restoration. Although once occupied as a private guest house and more recently as the Kyle Chamber of Commerce offices, restoration work is slated to begin this summer.
The six-month renovation of the Stagecoach Houseshould be complete this November, city leaders say, well in time for the annual Trail of Lights festival.
The Stagecoach project was funded largely through a series of grants from Hays County, the Lower Colorado River Authority and the Burdine Johnson Foundation.
