The Grimes County Historical Commission has begun a sweeping restoration at Historic Anderson Heritage Park, starting with a rebuild of the Steinhagen Museum that will strip the building back down to its original design. Crews are replacing the structure's foundation, adding a new porch and adding electricity, with the commission aiming to return the building to the dogtrot layout it once had.
The commission is making what it describes as major improvements at the park to preserve local history, according to KXXV. Work is starting with the Steinhagen Museum, and the project list runs well beyond a simple repair job: commissioners voted to remove interior walls and turn the building back into a dogtrot, the open-breezeway style common to early Texas construction, as part of returning it to its original form.
Power, Foundation Work and a Tight Timeline
Electricity is being added to the Steinhagen Museum before the end of the month, a step the commission says needs to happen before foundation work can move forward. Kathy Cave Wells, president of the Grimes County Historical Commission, has said the group hopes to restore the nearby Steinhagen Cabin within the next year or so.
Those plans build on action the commission's board took Sept. 2, when it received approval to continue beautification and preservation efforts across the park, per the Navasota Examiner. At that meeting, commissioners approved payment for tree-trimming services along with foundation and construction work on the Steinhagen Museum, and they accepted a donated live oak tree while approving a new water tap at the park. The outlet noted that all of the approved items were budgeted.
A Liberty Tree and a New Amphitheater
A Liberty Tree is planned to commemorate America 250, with a planting ceremony to follow once the water line is turned on.
The commission is also planning to tear down the park's existing stage and put up a new amphitheater in its place, though the old stage will not come down until the commission has received the final two bids and chosen a contractor. The project is one of several landmark-building efforts the commission is juggling at once, alongside the museum work and planned cabin restoration.
Grants in the Works for Two More Historic Buildings
The park restoration is not the commission's only active preservation push. The group is separately seeking grants to restore the Steinhagen Cabin and the Boggess Store, two historic Anderson buildings, with the goal of eventually reopening the Boggess Store as a working business rather than leaving it as a static display.
Neighbors in the area expect the park to eventually become a destination for people traveling through the region, a prospect that has generated some optimism locally even as the work remains in its early stages. Historic Anderson Heritage Park sits at FM 1774 and Main Street in Anderson, where construction is underway.
