by JONATHAN YORK
The Kyle depot at Front and Center streets was renovated seven years ago. It was not restored, however, to look the way it did in 1917.
Now the city is asking for bids on the first phase of a complete restoration, with hopes that the depot will end up on the National Register of Historic Places.
The project will be far more involved than replacing some window panes. Floors have to come up, stairs and ceilings must come down, and a few period fixtures will need to be installed. These include a sliding freight door, a second ticket window and a pair of brick chimneys.
“There’s a lot there that hasn’t been destroyed, but there are certain elements that have been added that have sort of diluted the historic character on the outside of the building,” said Emily Little, project architect.
Contractors must express interest by Jan. 16 and attend a meeting at the depot the next day. The deadline for submitting bids is Jan. 31.
Kate Johnson, director of the depot board, noted that the city was able to get an extension on a $25,000 grant from the Lower Colorado River Authority that could have expired last month. The grant had required the city to start work in December. “We’re just right on schedule,” Johnson said. “They were very accommodating.”
The cost of the first construction phase has been estimated at $230,000. There’s no new cost to Kyle residents, though. That money is coming from hotel occupancy taxes and from grants. And Johnson has said that the depot board is committed to raising all necessary funds in the future.
“The taxpayers of Kyle will not have to pay one penny for this project,” she wrote in comments on the Hays Free Press website. “But, I will be asking people to give money who believe that the history of Kyle is important.”
Kyle was once a center for cotton production. Many people brought their cotton to a freight room at the depot to load it onto passing trains. Now the city plans for that freight room to be restored so that visitors can look at its old wooden trusses and learn how the town carried out commerce a century ago.
The depot’s waiting rooms will also be restored to the way they were: segregated, with one small room for black passengers and a larger room for white ones. The small waiting room will become a museum for African-American history.
“We’re just hoping to really make it sort of a gateway element into Kyle,” Little said, “because it’s sitting right there on the front door, but it’s kind of sad right now.”