Dickinson Station of the GH&H Railroad

The railroad serving Dickinson was a wartime lifeline and later a prize in court. During the Civil War it carried traffic to and from the blockade runners reaching Galveston, and General Magruder used its tracks and the bay bridge to retake the island on January 1, 1863. Jay Gould and Russell Sage bought it in 1882. After Gould lost control of the Katy, the Katy and the International-Great Northern fought over its lease in the courts until November 19, 1895, when they split ownership and shared trackage between Houston and Galveston.

What the plaque says

Dickinson Station of the GH&H Railroad Chartered by the State of Texas on February 7, 1853, the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad was the first railroad to reach the Texas Coast. A trestle was built across Galveston Bay in 1859, and passenger and freight service was initiated between Galveston and Harrisburg. The line's earliest engines were two wood-burning locomotives named "Perseverance" and "Brazos." Known as the "Old Reliable Short Line," the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad was of military importance during the Civil War and played a vital role in the South's recapture of Galveston. Two special trains, one for Sunday excursions and one for newspaper deliveries, were operating by 1877. This depot, designed by Galveston architect George B. Stowe, was built in 1902 to replace the original 1850s structure which had burned in 1900. As Dickinson became a popular location for picnics and outings, special chartered trains brought passengers here on excursions. A nearby racetrack also attracted visitors. Dickinson became a center for fruit and vegetable production in the early 1900s, and refrigerated rail cars regularly transported the goods to market. The depot was moved here from the railroad right-of-way in 1967 and adapted for use as a museum. (1987)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Space Center Houston — 7.3 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Galveston Island State Park — 18 mi
  A cattle ranch willed to the state that now runs the full width of Galveston Island, from two miles of Gulf beach across dunes and prairie to the marshes of West Galveston Bay.
• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 20 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.
• The Strand — 20 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• Townsite of Dickinson — 2.1 mi
• League Park — 4.5 mi
• St. Mary Mission Church — 4.5 mi
• First Baptist Church of League City — 4.6 mi