Alpine, Texas in 1933. The large white building behind the railroad tracks is the Holland Hotel. It still exists today. The old T&NO depot on the right, behind the tank car, is gone. It was replaced by a newer structure that is still used by Amtrak for the Sunset Limited.
The old wooden Alpine depot burned in 1946 and was replaced by the current structure soon after that.
Under the topic of How Not To Restore A Depot is this example I recently photographed at Abingdon, VA on the former N&W. Upon receiving a $220,000 grant from the Virginia Transportation Enhancement Program, someone decided that it would be a grand idea to cut a large hole in the roof to install a skylight. While I'm glad that the depot is preserved, this kind of architectural violation frustrates me. A spokesman said, "We’re adding a green component to this in restoring this. The Historical Society of Washington County leases the building from the town and it will enable them to probably drastically reduce the lighting costs."
They really messed up the old Southern Pacific depot in Sugar Land. It was moved and then taken over by the local chamber of commerce. It was refurbished to look like an old SP depot. After about 20 years some old bitty decide to remodel it. They enclosed the open air porticos at either end, replaced all the widows with modern aluminum frames, moved the front door to the middle of the telegraph bay window, replaced the slate roof with composition shingle and repainted it to non SP railroad colors.
We can add Sugar Land, TX to our How Not To Restore A Depot volume. In the mid-1980s when the seeds were sown in Scranton, PA for Steamtown, a cadre of artistic planners sketched out plans to fill turntable pit with a rotating dance stage. Thankfully that never came to pass ....
The ACL depot in Lake City, SC has devolved into a bit of a rambling mess mostly in need of some severe landscape help, but at least it stands and is structurally maintained.
One of my railfan buddies had collected (accumulated) so much railroad memorabilia (junk) that he had nowhere to store it anymore. So he bought an old depot, moved all his stuff in and proceeded to meticulously restore it.
Another nicely restored depot. Yup, same town ZZ Top wrote a song about. Just let me know, if you want to go, to that home out on the range.......
Yes! I liked the spokesman's qualified statement that "it will enable them to probably drastically reduce the lighting costs." In other words, "There's been no study whatsoever and the money was free, so we went with it."
Another example of a depot renovation crime took place in Yemassee, SC several years ago where a fine example of a classic ACL post-war modern station was morphed into an alleged reconstruction of an earlier structure. The result is a ruination. I spoke to a local fellow there and the arrival and excitement of a TV show had something to do with the debacle. The top (as it was) photo is from the web and the bottom is mine.
It seems to me that folks doing such work often confuse terminology. Reconstruction or renovation get used, when it should be "modification".
Various hacks on the property at Ringoes, NJ on the Black River & Western: ...and in PRR parlance, a cabin car:
