What are the opening hours?

Thursday 10am - 5pm Friday 10am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 5pm

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Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum

Name: Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum
Address: 6002 George Bush Drive, Katy, TX, 77493, US
Telephone: (281) 574-8618
Price range: Not Applicable

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Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum

Museum admission is free. Dedicated to former Mayor and City Administrator Johnny Nelson.

08/31/2026

Happy ! It looks like we’re in for another hot week. One of the stories that we hear from Katy’s old-timers is that they would go swimming in the rice irrigation wells in the summer. Sounds like a good way to beat the heat!

Featured in this post is a photo of Katy residents cooling off in their rice well. The caption on the photo says this was near Baker Road and I-10. This photo helped inspire artist Tyler Kay to include a scene of people swimming in a rice well on the murals at the City of Katy Historic Town Square.

Do you remember swimming in a rice well in the old days? Let us know in the comments. The fountain in front of the museum isn’t big enough to swim in, but we promise the A/C is blowing if you come inside.

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Katy Veterans Memorial Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9am to 2pm.

08/24/2026

Happy ! On this day in history twenty years ago, Pluto was demoted from its place as the ninth planet in our solar system.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, and even though its status as a planet was relatively recent, the decision to reclassify it as a “dwarf planet” was controversial. Speaking to Space.com, the leader NASA’s New Horizon mission to study Pluto said, “I’m embarrassed for astronomy.”

Featured in this post is the entry for Pluto from the museum’s 1946 Webster’s dictionary, now sadly out of date on at least one subject.

To learn more about the arguments for and against Pluto’s demotion, visit:

https://www.space.com/2791-pluto-demoted-longer-planet-highly-controversial-definition.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33462184

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Katy Veterans Memorial Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9am to 2pm.

08/20/2026

Good morning, Katyites. We regret to inform you that the MKT Depot Museum will be closed today.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please join us at the Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum, open 10 am to 5 pm.

You can also visit our friends at the VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Katy Veterans Memorial Museum from 9 am to 2 pm.

08/17/2026

Happy ! Katy ISD is back in session, and we’re just under two months away from the Katy Rice Harvest Festival. The food and festivities at the City of Katy Historic Town Square may be the main attraction, but don’t forget to visit the museum to view the entries for the student art contest!

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this year’s theme is “Birthday Card to America.” Students are encouraged to use their artwork to share a birthday wish for “We the People,” and reflect on the symbols that represent our country, as well as the ideals in the Declaration of Independence, such as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The contest is open to all KISD art students. The full rules and registration packet will be available from district art teachers.

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Katy Veterans Memorial Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9am to 2pm.

08/10/2026

Happy ! Katy ISD students go back to school this week. It’s an exciting and distressing time of new names, faces, and places, and soon enough it’s going to be time for report cards!

Featured in this post is a report card from the 1921-1922 school year, belonging to Katy farmer Frederick Eugene Hoyt Jr. We recently shared a photo of him hunting with NASA astronauts in the early 1960s.

Here at the museum, we couldn’t help but notice his history grades. Despite the Ds and Cs, he managed an A on his examination. Someone must’ve crammed!

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Katy Veterans Memorial Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9am to 2pm.

08/03/2026

Happy ! Katy ISD’s summer break is almost over. Parents, have you started getting your kids ready to start the day early again? The Katy Independent School District now has nearly 80 campuses. With 48 elementary schools alone, the district decided in 2022 to stagger elementary start times in three tiers over a 40-minute period, to ease the strain on the district’s bus drivers.

Featured in this post is a photo of James Eugene “S***t” Poorman. After serving in the Navy during World War 2, S***t returned to Katy and drove a school bus for the school district from 1946 – 1952. A much smaller school bus, for a much smaller school district than today’s KISD.

There’s still time to visit the city’s museums before school starts! The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Katy Veterans Memorial Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9am to 2pm.

07/27/2026

Happy ! Today we’d like to recognize the contributions of one of our colleagues, Dani Vana, and wish her a fond farewell in her retirement after twenty years of service.

Dani joined the City of Katy in January 2006, one of three people hired to work at the planned MKT Depot Museum, which was scheduled to open in March of that year.

Over the past two decades, Dani has seen celebrations and struggles at the Depot, from its 125th birthday to its closure at the start of the Covid pandemic. Dani has devoted a significant part of her life to sharing Katy’s history with visitors, but it was often a two-way exchange. When asked what her favorite part of the job was, she said, “I was very grateful to work in the Depot because I got to meet people from all over the world. I learned so much from them.”

Thank you, Dani! We’ll all miss the knowledge and dedication of the Katy Depot’s last “station master.”

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Katy Veterans Memorial Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9am to 2pm.

07/20/2026

Happy ! On this day in history, July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 crewmembers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. Armstrong would become the first human to set foot on the Moon at the culmination of the Space Race. He had been selected for the second batch of Project Gemini astronauts in 1962. The next year, he and his new colleagues found time to visit Katy for a hunting trip.

Featured in this post is a photo of NASA astronauts Walter Schirra, Neil Armstrong, and Donald “Deke” Slaton, hunting with Fred Hoyt and other Katy residents, c.1963.

Do you remember watching the Moon landing? To see the original footage of the landing and learn more about the mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/apollo-11/

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The VFW Post 9182 & Auxiliary - Katy, Texas Veterans Memorial Museum is open Monday-Friday from 9am to 2pm.

07/19/2026

The MKT Depot Museum will be closed today, July 19th. We apologize for the inconvenience.

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum will be open normal hours, 11 am - 5 pm.

07/13/2026

Happy ! Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Katy Branch Library last Friday for our 2026 genealogy class. Our program this year focused on the steps that you can take right now to make it easier for your descendants to research you when you’re an ancestor.

One of the tools we looked at as a framework for recording your life’s stories is a set of questions from researchers at Emory University, called the “Do You Know...?” questions. Can you answer these questions about your parents and grandparents? Someday, your descendants might be asking the same questions about you.

Some concrete steps you can start taking now to help this information survive include keeping a journal, labeling your photos, and making audio recordings of your stories.

1. Do you know how your parents met?

2. Do you know where your mother grew up?

3. Do you know where your father grew up?

4. Do you know where some of your grandparents grew up?

5. Do you know where some of your grandparents met?

6. Do you know where your parents were married?

7. Do you know what went on when you were being born?

8. Do you know the source of your name?

9. Do you know some things about what happened when your brothers or sisters were being born?

10. Do you know which person in your family you look most like?

11. Do you know which person in the family you act most like?

12. Do you know some of the illnesses and injuries that your parents experienced when they were younger?

13. Do you know some of the lessons that your parents learned from good or bad experiences?

14 . Do you know some things that happened to your mom or dad when they were in school?

15 . Do you know the national background of your family (such as English, German, Russian, etc.)?

16 . Do you know some of the jobs that your parents had when they were young?

17 . Do you know some awards that your parents received when they were young?

18 . Do you know the names of the schools that your mom went to?

19 . Do you know the names of the schools that your dad went to?

20. Do you know about a relative whose face “froze” in a grumpy position because he or she did not smile enough?

For more on these questions and how they were developed, visit:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-stories-of-our-lives/201611/the-do-you-know-20-questions-about-family-stories

The Johnny Nelson Katy Heritage Museum and MKT Depot Museum are open Thursday-Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To schedule a group tour, call 281-578-7461. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

Please note that the museum is still closed while crews continue to work on the wastewater lift station in the VFW Park. We hope to open as scheduled this weekend. Please continue to monitor this page for updates.

Address

6002 George Bush Drive
Katy, TX
77493

Opening Hours

Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 5pm

Telephone

(281) 574-8618

Website

facebook.com

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