Danbury townspeople relocate, turn train depot into a museum

DANBURY, Neb. (KOLN) - In 1888, the Danbury train depot was built alongside the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. When the railroad stopped using the depot, they considered tearing down the two-story building in the late 1970s.

Instead, the townspeople rallied together to preserve it as the Danbury Depot Museum.

“There was a group of townspeople that it meant a lot to, so they got up a petition and got donations to move it to its present location,” said Raymond Kelley, a 90-year-old man who grew up in Danbury.

This isn’t the first time the townspeople relocated something of significance. In 1887, the whole town moved to be closer to the railroad. The tracks served as the town’s lifeline.

“It was the place where people would pick up the things that they ordered,” said Carol Kelley, the museum curator. “It was how they got their mail, and they would ship their products like grain or cattle. The farm wives would bring their eggs and cream to ship on the train.”

Today, about 80 people live in Danbury, which just celebrated its 150th anniversary as a town.

Raymond Kelley’s family owned one of the original homesteads to Danbury before the town moved. When the depot faced destruction, he joined the cause to save it. They hauled the structure to its current location on 306 Grandville Ave. in Danbury.

From there, the depot went through two major renovations in 1982 and then in 2008.

“I volunteered to rebuild it like it was originally,” Raymond said. “They wanted to take the stove out, but I said, ‘No, I bet I can save that.’ And I did.”

Volunteers repainted the exterior and got the ticket office back to its former glory. Raymond said he used barn wood to construct some of the displays. However, the structural integrity became worrisome.

“They were already starting to make a museum out of this, and they noticed that the walls were starting to spread out,” Raymond said. “And they were afraid that the upper story was going to fall on people.”

Raymond was inspired by buildings on the east coast that had bars bolted through the ceilings and walls. The bars were meant to keep buildings structurally sound during earthquakes. He came back to Danbury and implemented the same strategy to keep the depot standing.

“He’s done a lot of the building and repairs a lot of things that are in here, whereas I did the displays,” said Carol Kelley, Raymond’s daughter-in-law.

Raymond passed his duties to Carol who is now the caretaker of the depot.

“I realized the people who started the museum and ran it couldn’t go upstairs anymore,” Carol said. “Or they no longer lived here or some of them had passed away, so that’s kind of how I got started.”

The museum features historic figures with an entire corner dedicated to Danbury native Bess Furman Armstrong. She was a well-known newspaper woman who worked in Washington D.C. and was close friends with Eleanor Roosevelt.

The front room resembles the ticket office with old photos, plat maps and newspapers displayed on the walls. Behind the counters are artifacts from the depot’s prime like a hook to snag the mail bag, typewriters and train models. There are even photo collages that show the depot’s transformation.

The depot agent and his family would have lived on the second floor. A bedroom shows what his quarters might have looked like with various belongings laid out.

“This quilt on here is kind of interesting,” Carol said, gesturing to the bed. “This is from Marion, which is just down the road a little ways, but it was actually made by the students.”

Carol helped compile yearbooks, scrapbooks and sports team photos from schools that no longer exist in Danbury, Beaver Valley, Twin Valley and Southwest.

“Danbury used to be the Danbury pirates,” Carol said. “There’s a lot of cool pictures. They had an outdoor basketball team, and my father-in-law Raymond was the high-jump champion when he was in high school.”

A military room takes people through Danbury’s wartime experiences, and it includes a display to remember missing in action military members.

“We’re thankful for our veterans that have served from here, and there’s been a lot, so we wanted to show a tribute to them,” Carol said.

The Danbury Depot Museum contains many more artifacts and art that is inspired by sights in Red Willow County. If you’d like to tour the museum, they’re open on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. People can also schedule private visits or tours by messaging the Danbury Depot Museum on Facebook.

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