Danbury, NE

[Coyote]

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.