This aspiring little Gulf Coast community was established on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad about 1898 and called Evergreen; it was also known as Shell Siding in the period when the railroad hauled shell from the area.

The community grew to point that residents wanted to have their own post office. However, they was told there was already a town with the name of Evergreen. If they wanted a post office, they would have to come up with a new name. And so they did. Eventually, the name Kemah was chosen.

It means “wind in the face”, an Indian term. If you’ve ever been to Kemah, you will readily agree the Gulf breeze makes the name quite appropriate. The population of Kemah remained small, around 100-200 citizens for the first part of the 20th century. It slowly began to grow after the late 1930s to over 500 people. In more recent times, the boating industry flourished. With easy access to the Gulf of Mexico, and the construction of dozens of new marinas, many Houstonian weekenders were anxious to spend their free days on the waterfront. Kemah now boasts a population of about 2700.