Buda train depot to return

BUDA — On Nov. 8, the Buda City Council voted to accept the historic Buda Train Depot from the current owner and return the structure to the city.

According to assistant city manager Wendy Smith, the depot is currently in San Marcos, but has been offered as a donation to prevent the building from being demolished due to the lot being transitioned into an RV sales lot.

The original depot was closed in 1961 and was located in the present day Greenbelt in downtown Buda. The building was sold several times, but is not identified in the historic resource survey.

Smith stated that Will Parrish, senior planner for the city, has analyzed the building and deemed it to be in good condition, with minimal changes over the decades. The exterior maintains the architectural details and original siding materials, the ticket booth is still intact, the floorboards now line the kitchen walls, plumbing has been added that is up-to-date with current residential use and there has been one addition: a walk-in closet.

At its regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 19, the Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously to bring the train depot back to Buda, but chose to delegate the choice of location to city council.

Staff has identified several possible locations, including the Greenbelt, Stagecoach Park, Garrison Park or the property next to 100 Houston Street and estimates that it will need to be relocated by early February 2024.

“I, for one, am super excited about this. I want to put it next to the gazebo in the Greenbelt. I’ll throw my vote on this table right now,” said Mayor Lee Urbanovsky.

When discussing what this would look like, council discussed placing the depot as close as possible to the tracks on Main Street to maintain a level of greenery in front of it. According to staff, the area in front of the tracks is used quite often for market and community days, so it's important to keep some of this.

“If we ever get commuter rail, I mean, we could retrofit that thing to actually use it as a rail station. I don’t know how far off that would be. If that’s a crazy idea or what, or if it’s not modern enough to do something like that, but that would be pretty neat,” said council member Paul Daugereau.

Council member Monica Davidson was concerned that it “is one more old house and we can’t even take care of the other old house, [Stagecoach House], that we need to be taking care of … I don’t want another house with raccoons living in it.”

Smith stated that the building could be added to the city’s current contract for cleaning.

“I think we’re not thinking about one: that it’s an old building [and that] two: it needs to have a foundation. Are we really going to go out and put a foundation on our grass?” said council member LaVonia Horne-Williams.

The council voted 6-1 to bring the depot back to Buda, with its location to be on Main Street in the Greenbelt. Horne-Williams cast the dissenting vote.