BUFFALO - Eleven-year-old Gus Schroth answers the door at his family's newly remodeled home on Lobban Street. He explains that his mother, Margi, has been unexpectedly called away and won't be able to provide a tour of the Schroth home.

"You can come in and see the house, if you want to," Gus says. "Take a look and see where you think we should put this year's Christmas tree."

A whirlwind tour through what used to be the long-ago-abandoned Buffalo railroad warehouse shows that Gus has wisdom way beyond his years. He points out the rooms of his three sisters and apologizes for baby brother Avery's "messy" room.

"He's got too many toys," says Gus, shutting Avery's door and moving on to another portion of the house.

After the tour, Gus points out that the newly remodeled home will be a great place for the Schroth family's 2007 Christmas celebration. With its high ceilings in the kitchen, dining room and living room, the house provides numerous places to position and decorate a Christmas tree.

According to mother Margi, "Gus is a good brother. As the lone boy before Avery arrived, he always had to share a room with one of his sisters. Now his friends come over when they want. This is a very contained place for kids."

The building was constructed as one of several to accommodate the arrival of the Wyoming Railroad, which began building a line from Clearmont to Buffalo for the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad soon after the turn of the 20th century. Several transactions occurred before the steel rails arrived in Johnson County in 1915.

According to the book, "Duffy's Bluff," by Buffalo writer M.R. "Smokey" Edwards, "The coming of the railroad was the main topic of conversations as 1916 drew to a close. The rails were getting closer to Buffalo all the time…"

Edwards writes how a headlines in the March 5, 1918 issue of the local newspaper read, "Passing of Buffalo as an inland town." The accompanying article noted, "On the last day of February, the death knell of Buffalo's reputation as an inland town was sounded. The last few rods of track spelled quite an event in the history of Buffalo and it will no doubt make history in the next few years."

By 1948, the Buffalo railroad was no more. The old roundhouse still stands on the north side of East Hart Street; the Buffalo depot is a residence and home to a pottery business; and the warehouse is the home of the Schroths.

After the demise of the railroad, several businesses occupied the warehouse building. For some time, local businessman Ray Heurermann had a feed and seed business in the building. That included the main store and north warehouse. Later Salt Creek Freightways, under the direction of another businessman, Emil Hecht, called the building home.

According to local nurse Mary Whaley, her parents, Paul and Dot Beutler, bought the building in February 1961. They had Army/Navy surplus, used furniture and some sporting goods.

"As time went by they expanded their sporting goods line, which included ski rentals and gardening supplies," Whaley said. "They bought a little motel (cabins) in Clearmont and moved the building behind the store. The old garage they bought from the motel became the original greenhouse."

Whaley and her husband, Pat, purchased the business from the Beutlers in the early 1980s. After Pat Whaley began having health problems, the couple closed out the business and sold the building in 2003.

Margi Schroth is a community-minded person, and when she needed a larger house for her growing family, she thought the historic building could fill the need. She called in six of her employees who she says have proven themselves to be "very reliable and darned good carpenters."

During its days as a corrugated tin warehouse with six large cargo doors, once 30,000 white turkeys were shipped from the building. There was once a pig slaughtering operation "out back," and when the carpenters used a Bobcat to dig a hole to construct a cement wall, girders and posts for the basement, they found an old dump.

"They also found shards of beautiful fine gilded china," Schroth said. "There was also a collection of medical related items and bits of porcelain pieces. A lot of treasures came out of the past there."

All of the floors in the building are the originals, and the roller dock doors are still in place. There had never been a kitchen, so the men started from scratch, putting in a new beam. The side posts and posts came from the HF Bar Ranch in the Big Horns. It took three years to complete the work in the entire house, but Schroth said it was well worth it. It rivals any modern home, plus the added historical touch.

The dining room with its elongated table is set off with a chandelier ensconced in barbed wire. That's right, barbed wire.

From Buffalo's historic old Idlewild Hotel came the doors in the six bedrooms, as well as the dining room and living room windows. Gus and Margi bring a water hose through the open window to give all of the plants (a lot of them) a drink.

The two-story living room is spacious. Some of the bookshelves in the room came from the second floor. What was once a set of scales for weighing wool and other items is now a coffee table. There are reading nooks and cozy corners everywhere. Even some old cuts on the floor were left to give the room a special touch.

Around the room are homey rugs, couches and chairs - not from the railroad, but "scrounged from various places," Schroth said.

A corn hopper sits outside the bathroom between the living room and kitchen.

"We like the eclectic look, as you can tell," Schroth said. "This house can take a crowd, and we even have three telephones, so someone can get to one when they ring. The house is so large, it's a good place to get your exercise.

As for Gus, he says he likes the "old things" in the house - the seed bins, for example - but he also likes the newness of the place.