The Baytown Nature Center is a place of serenity and natural beauty, but the facility wasn’t always a sanctuary for rare birds, other wildlife and fishing.

Officials say that before the wildlife moved in, Mother nature moved out about 375 families.

They used to live in the Brownwood subdivision.

That is an upscale neighborhood that was nicknamed “The River Oaks of Baytown.”

That subdivision was once home to doctors, lawyers, engineers and oil executives, but Hurricane Alicia put an end to that.

The storm left the area uninhabitable.

Frank Antonio lived in Brownwood for 22 years before Alicia’s flood waters chased him out for good.

It was then that Antonio, a former Navy seaman, vowed to never live near water again.

“It was my life. I don’t want it no more. I’m finished,” he said.

But not everyone was willing to give up their homes.

In fact, a handful of residents fought for years for the right to rebuild in Brownwood.

All of those residents lost their fight and moved out.

In 1991, the Baytown City Council voted to turn the land into a nature center.

Some of personal items recovered from the ruins of Brownwood greet visitors who come into the Baytown Nature Center today.

“You look at some of this stuff and you look at it and you think, this is somebody’s, it was in their kitchen, they played with this football. It’s kind of a strange feeling,” said Walter Brown. He’s the gate keeper at the center.

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This is the Baytown Nature Center.

What once was a scene of massive destruction and a dumping ground is now an outdoor classroom.

“It was a horrible thing, but we’ve taken what was really a bad issue and turned it into lemonade. Lemons to lemonade and that’s what we are today,” said Scott Johnson.