(rshsdepot) Former train depots provide ties to Northwest Michigan's railroad history

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From the Petoskey News-Review.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
Former train depots provide ties to area's railroad history 
By Ryan Bentley, News-Review Staff  Writer
Friday, October 7, 2005 12:02 PM EDT       
It's been decades since passenger trains have made regular  visits to 
Northwest Michigan, and many of the tracks that once served as local  communities' key
 links with the outside world are gone.

But reminders of  the transportation mode that fueled the area's growth as a 
resort destination  more than a century ago can still be found in cities and 
villages across Emmet  and Charlevoix counties.

Many of the depots which handled arrivals and  departures of people and cargo 
still stand, even if the rails leading to most of  them have been pulled up.

Some serve as centers for storing and  commemorating local history. Others 
are seeing new lives as places of business,  with more than one current depot 
owner taking care to ensure that at least some  reminders of the area's railroad 
past remain.

An important  link

That railroad past began more than 130 years ago. The first train to  reach 
Petoskey - operated by the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway - arrived with  
freight in November 1873, and passenger service began the following year.     
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By the turn of the 20th century, the GR & I and a  competing line that had 
come to the area, the Chicago and West Michigan  Railroad, were promoting 
sleeper car service to Northern Michigan destinations  for resort visitors from 
cites downstate and in Illinois, Indiana and  Ohio.

From Petoskey, both railroads ran suburban, or ”dummy“ trains,  which served 
outlying communities and resorts. Harbor Springs resident Charlie  Conn, a 
railroad buff who's amassed an extensive collection of depot  photographs, said 
the suburban service saw its peak demand between the 1890s and  the World War 
I era.

As the 20th century went on, train travel to the  area faded in popularity as 
road links improved and air travel became available.  Regularly scheduled 
passenger rail service disappeared from Northwest Michigan  by the early 1960s, 
and freight service dwindled in the decades that  followed.

Conn estimated that the number of depots existing around Emmet  and 
Charlevoix counties peaked at around 20. Today, 11 of the buildings where  rail 
passengers and freight were once processed still stand in an area  stretching from 
East Jordan to Mackinaw City.       
”We're just extremely blessed in Emmet and Charlevoix  counties to have as 
many depots survive as we did,“ Conn said. ”And so many of  them are being used.
“

Housing history

Toledo, Ohio, resident Mark  J. Camp, a director for the Railroad Station 
Historical Society, said museums  and community centers are some of the most 
common new uses established for  former depots nationwide. Petoskey and Charlevoix 
are among the communities  where this has occurred.

A Petoskey depot built in 1892 for the Chicago  and West Michigan Railroad - 
which later became part of the Pere Marquette  Railroad - has been home to the 
Little Traverse Historical Society's main museum  since the early 1970s.

Before the historical society took it over, many  in the community had 
considered the abandoned depot an eyesore. A proposal  before the Petoskey City 
Council to demolish it in the 1960s failed by a  one-vote margin.

But today, historical society director Candace  Fitzsimons said it's often a 
first stop for tourists seeking to learn about the  area. As of late, 10,000 
visitors have passed through the museum on an annual  basis.

Numerous original features - like interior woodwork, some exterior  trim and 
a vine outside the main entrance which was planted in 1892 - survive at  the 
Petoskey depot. Fitzsimons said the building's layout has proven viable for  
museum use. She noted its two wings which can house separate exhibits and old  
sleeping quarters for railroad crew upstairs which have been adapted for office 
 and archive space.

”People come in and say this is just a jewel,“  Fitzsimons said.

Several blocks west of the passenger  depot-turned-museum, a freight depot 
once used by the Chicago and West  Michigan/Pere Marquette Railroad still 
stands. That property is now part of the  Sunset Shores condominium complex.

A passenger depot built in 1893 for  the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad 
in Charlevoix is now used by the  Charlevoix Historical Society as an exhibit 
and gathering space.

Located  near Depot Beach, the structure was donated to the historical 
society by Robert  and Mary Pew in 1992 - the centennial anniversary of the first 
train arrival in  Charlevoix.

A mix of grants and private donations are supporting an  ongoing restoration 
program at the depot.

”We're replacing the outside  pillars,“ said David Miles, co-director of the 
historical society's Harsha House  Museum. ”We have completely re-roofed it. 
We're going to be putting new flooring  in, also.

”We try to keep it as close to the original as we  could.“

The depot is the first property to be included in a new  Charlevoix city 
historic district. Plans are in the works for an exhibit on the  Big Rock Point 
nuclear power plant site's history to be offered in the  building.

In Pellston, village officials purchased a depot once used by  the GR & I - 
which was later absorbed by the Pennsylvania and Penn Central  railroads - 
about three years ago in hope of putting it to use as a  museum.

”It is in very good shape,“ village president Jim Gillett said.  ”It's a 
nice asset to have that in the village's hands and not go into private  hands and 
be who knows what.“

To date, Gillett estimated that the village  has invested $15,000 in building 
improvements at the depot, which dates back to  1907 and housed businesses 
like a video store, plumbing and heating shop and  antique shop after it ceased 
to serve railroad passengers.

Pellston  officials have been unsuccessful so far in their efforts to obtain 
grants for  additional restoration steps, but Gillett said he's hopeful that 
funds can be  raised during the coming winter and the transition to a museum 
complete by  Memorial Day weekend in 2006.

A non-profit organization was established  two years ago to organize the 
museum. Gillett said the museum would have a focus  on railroad and logging 
activities around Pellston around the turn of the 20th  century. Many photographs 
and artifacts have been obtained from that era, and  organizers are looking for 
more.

Larry MacEachern, the present owner of a  depot in downtown East Jordan, 
believes the property once used by the East  Jordan and Southern Railroad has 
potential to serve historical and community  functions. He's hoping to trade it to 
East Jordan city officials for the Elm  Pointe park property north of town on 
M-66.

The depot, which dates back  to 1901, has served business as well as railroad 
purposes. A previous owner used  it as an auto parts store, with MacEachern 
later using it as a warehouse and  distribution hub for his own business. Now, 
he pursues hobbies in the  building.

”What I've been doing is preserving it ever since I bought it  (in 1982),“ 
MacEachern said. ”I just try to keep the building in a preserved  state without 
doing any radical modifications.“

Getting down to  business

When Craig and Diane Bell and Carmen Ludy acquired the former GR  & I depot 
near Harbor Springs' waterfront in 1999, their focus was on  preservation and 
restoration of the structure built in 1887. But they soon came  to the 
conclusion that it would serve as a good location for their art, interior  design and 
garden product wholesaling businesses.

”People generally are  drawn to wonderful old architecture, that ambiance,“ 
Diane Bell said, noting the  building's sizable roof overhangs and their arts 
and crafts-style supports.  ”It's inviting.“

Aided by railroad-era documents which specified which  Sherwin-Williams 
paints were to be used around the building, the current owners  have implemented a 
color scheme for the depot that's largely true to the  original.

The current owners made a variety of infrastructure updates at  the depot, 
including new climate-control systems to replace a potbelly stove  which had 
heated the building for years. Drywall and insulation were added to a  former 
baggage area to make it more suitable for year-round use, and an attic  storage 
area was converted to a rental apartment.

But original flooring  and doors remain, and the signatures of former 
railroad staff can be seen on the  rafters. The Bells had considered installing a 
reproduction of a roof spire that  disappeared from the depot, but this project 
has proven  cost-prohibitive.

In Mackinaw City - once a key railroad location where  lines serving eastern 
and western Michigan came together and trains were loaded  onto ferries for 
passage across the Straits of Mackinac - the remaining portion  of a Michigan 
Central depot was restored and incorporated into the new Mackinaw  Crossings 
shopping and entertainment complex in 1997. Its main floor now is  occupied by 
The Historic Depot Restaurant, and offices for the Crossings are  housed 
upstairs.

By the time the Crossings was developed, co-owner Bill  Shepler said about 
two-thirds of the original depot building had been  dismantled. The remaining 
portion - which once housed waiting and baggage rooms  and a ticket counter - 
still has some original woodwork, paneling and windows,  and the exterior has 
been painted with the same red-and-white color scheme used  in the depot's early 
days. Inside, a bar has been added and photographs hung to  memorialize the 
era when the structure served railroad passengers.

”We  don't want the history to die,“ Shepler said.

A freight depot in Boyne  City which was built in 1893 and served the Boyne 
City, Gaylord and Alpena  Railroad is now home to another restaurant: Lester's, 
the Place for Barbecue. In  Alanson, a second Lester's location operates in a 
former GR & I depot which  dates back to 1892.

Petoskey's former GR & I/Pennsylvania Railroad  depot along Lewis Street, 
built in 1899, has been home to the Pennsylvania Plaza  office complex for 
several decades.

Brick walls have been added to a  former waiting platform to enclose it for 
office use. Though the depot  building's interior has been modified, current 
Pennsylvania Plaza owner  Nathaniel Stroup noted that many exterior details 
remain from the railroad  era.

Though a depot a short distance to the south along Bay Street -  which the GR 
& I once used for suburban train service - is gone, a GR &  I freight depot 
along Michigan Street survives and now houses The Print  Shop.

Priority on preservation

The Railroad Station Historical  Society's Camp estimates that the number of 
train depots currently standing  nationwide is about a third of what once 
existed.

When his society was  organized in the 1960s, the railroad enthusiast and 
University of Toledo geology  professor said preservation of these structures 
wasn't much of a priority around  the United States. But as the Baby Boom 
generation came of age in the 1970s,  many of its members began to feel nostalgia for 
fixtures they remembered from  their youth, and the historic preservation 
movement was energized. Depots were  among the older buildings embraced as part 
of this movement, Camp  said.

”These days if there's an old depot, I'd say eight times out of 10  it ends 
up getting preserved in some way,“ he added.

Along with serving  as entry and exit points for the railroads which 
influenced so many communities'  development, Camp noted that depots once filled a 
major role in  communications.

An 1896 photograph of Petoskey's Chicago and West  Michigan depot shows a 
crowd gathered for a visit by presidential candidate  William Jennings Bryan. 
Camp noted that depots were a common venue for campaign  speeches nationwide.

”When depots first came around, they were the  communication of the town to 
the outside world,“ Camp said. ”All of the  information came into the depot by 
telegraph.

”They were basically the  connection to the outside world to most towns for a 
long time.“

Still  standing

Passenger and freight depots from the railroad era still survive  in many 
communities around Northwest Michigan, with many having been put to new  uses.

In Petoskey, the former Chicago and West Michigan/Pere Marquette  Railroad 
passenger depot along the city's waterfront is now the Little Traverse  
Historical Society's main museum. A freight depot once used by that railroad now  
stands several blocks to the west and is located within the Sunset Shores  
condominium complex. The former Grand Rapids and Indiana/Pennsylvania Railroad  depot 
along Lewis Street is now home to the Pennsylvania Plaza office complex. A  
GR & I freight house along Michigan Street presently houses The Print  Shop.

In Alanson, the former GR & I depot is now home to a Lester's  barbecue 
restaurant.

In Boyne City, another Lester's location operates in  a former Boyne City, 
Gaylord and Alpena Railroad freight depot.

In  Charlevoix, a depot that once served the Chicago and West Michigan 
Railroad is  now maintained by the Charlevoix Historical Society as a gathering and 
exhibit  space.

In East Jordan, the former East Jordan and Southern Railroad depot  now 
serves as a hobby shop for owner Larry MacEachern. He hopes to trade the  depot to 
the city of East Jordan for a park property north of town.

In  Harbor Springs, a former GR & I depot now houses an art gallery as well 
as  interior design and garden supply wholesaling businesses and a residential  
apartment.

In Mackinaw City, the surviving portion of a Michigan Central  depot has been 
incorporated into the Mackinaw Crossings retail and entertainment  complex 
and houses The Historic Depot Restaurant and offices for the  Crossings.

In Pellston, village officials acquired a former GR & I  depot about three 
years ago and invested about $15,000 in building updates  there. Village 
president Jim Gillett hopes to see funds raised for additional  restoration and a 
museum opened in the depot in the next year or so.

Ryan  Bentley can be contacted at 439-9342, or _rbentley_@_petoskeynews.com_ 
(mailto:rbentley_@_petoskeynews.com) .

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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 #1224
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org