The historic Theiss house is set to be moved to Wunderlich Farm on the Doerre Intermediate School property in Spring.
Klein ISD approved the funds to move the house at a March 7 board of trustees meeting. The district will fund up to $12,000 toward the move, and the Theiss family is donating nearly $3,000 to complete the total cost of the move.
“The board approved an expenditure of up to $12,000 to relocate the Theiss house to Wunderlich Farm to add to the learning experience of students and adults visiting the farm,” KISD Board President Steve Smith said. “The Theiss house offers an additional opportunity to witness life early in the last century.”
The Theiss family was one of the original settlers of the Klein area.
The house is going to serve multiple purposes, KISD historian Steve Baird said, including serving as a visitor center.
The house will be located toward the front of the Wunderlich Farm property. The office space in Doerre Intermediate School being used for Wunderlich Farm will be relocated to the house, and the inventory the farm owns will be moved to the relocated Theiss house as well, Baird said.
“We’re going to set up a permanent research area for people to have more access to our research material,” he said.
The goal for the restoration of the house is to set it up so it looks exactly like it did in its original state, Baird said.
“We’re going to strip the walls and get the original wood flooring and turn the house back to the way it looked back in the late ’20s and early ’30s,” he said.
Tree removal needs to take place before the move can be accomplished, Baird said. The house is being relocated from Jiral Farms west of Hassler Elementary School off Spring Cypress Road. The move will take place in mid-April or May, depending on the weather.
“We believe that history can have so much more meaning for our increasingly urban students if the students can touch and feel life as it used to be,” Smith said. “The Theiss house will add to that experience already provided by Wunderlich Farm.”
