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Re: (rshsdepot) Pawtucket-Central Falls, RI
- ----- Original Message -----
From: <I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com>
To: <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 10:44 AM
Subject: (rshsdepot) Pawtucket-Central Falls, RI
> From today's Pawtucket Times.
>
> Bernie Wagenblast
>
> Photos at: _http://www.hopetunnel.org/subway/pcf/_
> (http://www.hopetunnel.org/subway/pcf/)
>
>
> City hopes train depot can reopen with MBTA study of train station
>
> PAWTUCKET -- Since it stopped punching tickets in the 1960s, the
> Pawtucket-Central Falls Train Depot has been a flea market, a Pentecostal church and a
> refuge for the homeless.
> These days, itâ?Ts attracting more high-profile attention.
> On Friday morning, more than a dozen men and women in business suits,
> clutching leather portfolios, took a guided tour of the 90-year-old brick and steel
> behemoth. They were architectural and engineering consultants, responding to
> a request issued by the City of Pawtucket for a very important and expensive
> feasibility study.
> ``Enter at your own risk,`` said tour guide and City Planner Michael Cassidy.
> ``The city of Pawtucket is not responsible if you break your leg.``
> Eventually, one of these smartly dressed contractors would be hired to figure
> out how the massive building could be restored, converted into a modern MBTA
> commuter rail stop and made to coexist with the $40 million
> residential/commercial development blitz proposed by the depotâ?Ts owner, Memphis-based
> developer SMPO Properties.
> When SMPO purchased the 3.4-acre depot property for $1.4 million in July, a
> debate over the prospect of restoring the historic structure versus tearing it
> down had been raging for months. That debate continues today, despite SMPOâ?Ts
> announcement that an MBTA stop would have to share the property with a
> pharmacy, an auto parts store and 150 residential units.
> SMPO executive Oscar Seelbinder said he had no problem preserving the depot
> building as long as state and local government helped him shoulder the burden.
> ``Iâ?Tm not going to go in there and spend a million dollars (for
> architectural and engineering experts) to see if we can save the building,`` Seelbinder
> was quoted as saying. Now, utilizing state-secured money, the city of
> Pawtucket has set out to do just that.
> Even though the interior of the train depot has long since been stripped of
> its valuable stonework, the consultants gasped as they entered the main hall,
> with its steel-girded 40-foot ceilings, skylights and floor-to-ceiling
> windows. Cleanup crews had scrubbed most of the building clean, but several relics
> from the depot flea market and the depot itself, remained. A torn rice paper
> parasol hung on the wall, to the right of the depotâ?Ts old snack bar. The menu
> board depicted otherworldly prices: 50 cents for a cup of coffee; $1.75 for
> a meatball sandwich.
> After the depot tour, several consultants followed Cassidy to an alternate
> site, a derelict, trackside property behind Union Webbing Company. Some elected
> to descend to the tracks, where Amtrak and DOT were busy reconstructing the
> freight rail, two feet lower.
> Gazing up at the sprawling brick structure, straddling the tracks and two
> cities -- despite blocked-up windows and crumbling stonework, the tourists were
> clearly in awe.
> ``They just donâ?Tt make them like that anymore,`` someone in the crowd said.
CORRECTION : Amtrak has nothing to do with the reconstruction of the freight
track under the Pawtucket-Central Falls Station. That work is being done by the
RIDOT and the Providence & Worcester Railroad. The roadbed is being lowered
two feet to increase clearance for doublestack containers and tri-level auto racks.
Here are links to two recent pictures of the station. The second photo shows the
work in progress on the roadbed of the P&W's freight track.
http://rpc1244.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=195806
http://rpc1244.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=195808
Jim.
=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1221
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org