Local Video
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| Saving the 'gateway' |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Saturday, February 20, 2010 2:02 am
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A late-afternoon train casts shadows on the train depot in Northfield. A group of area residents is raising money to move the depot from its present location and restore it.
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Alan Alberg’s second visit to Northfield is a memory that will always stick with him.
Inducted into the Air Force, Alberg, now 84, was taking a train from St. Paul to a training camp in Texas prior to his nine-month combat deployment during World War II. The train, Alberg said, made a stop at the Northfield train depot to let off a crowd of students bound for St. Olaf and Carleton colleges.
“There was a great gathering and yelling and excitement and hugging,” Alberg remembers. It was his first introduction to college life. Struck by his impression of the town and the students, Alberg said, he later enrolled at St. Olaf, then moved into town.
For many, like Alberg, the train depot served as a gateway to Northfield, the lens through which travelers, students and uncountable visitors were introduced to the community.
For that reason, architect Steve Edwins and his fellow “Save the Depot” committee members say, the 122-year-old building is historically significant and worth preserving.
The committee, which consists of Edwins and community members Lynn Vincent, Rob Martin, Pat Allen, Chip DeMann, Alice Thomas and Clark Webster, hopes to raise $200,000 to $300,000 to move the old depot from its current location, restore it and put it to use in the community as an events venue, a museum, a visitors center or in some other function.
The plans couldn’t have come sooner for the imperiled old building, group members say.
Roots from nearby trees and undergrowth threaten the integrity of the depot’s foundations, Edwins said. Graffiti scars the exterior of the building, while the interior, too, is marked by vandalism.
To make matters worse, the Canadian Pacific Railroad, which currently owns the shuttered station, has plans to demolish the building or give it to the Northfield Fire Department for a controlled burn, according to the committee.
But the group, working with city administration and the Heritage Preservation Commission, says there is another option: The company could give the 1,200 square foot building to the city of Northfield, which would then transfer ownership of the depot to the group.
This is the second time in thirty years that residents have tried to rescue the depot. In 1983, DeMann purchased the demolition rights to the building in an effort to prevent the bankrupt Milwaukee Road Railroad company from demolishing it. The Milwaukee was bought out by Soo Line Railroad. Instead of trying to demolish the station, the railroad purchased the building from DeMann and put a new roof on the old depot.
No matter how the negotiations with Canadian Pacific play out this time around, the group would be required to move the building off railroad property. The committee has identified several suitable sites on public or private property, including Ames Park, Babcock Park, Way Park or the Q Block, located at the southeast corner of Highway 3 and Second Street downtown.
The committee would like to acquire the building by the end of the summer, and is currently looking for funding for the project from individuals, local organizations and state agencies. “Save the Depot” will also host a series of meetings in March to gather suggestions and ideas for the future of the train station from the community.
“To me, this depot is a live symbol of history, it’s a link for this community back to where it originated and beyond,” Vincent said.
WHAT MAKES THE DEPOT SPECIAL?
A report on the depot authored by the “Save the Depot” committee states the depot is representative of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture used predominantly between 1870 and 1900. The style is identified by its characteristic broad, swooping roofs with flared eaves and stone exteriors. No matter the style, architect Steve Edwins said, the building is still one of the few buildings from the early railroad era left in Northfield.
HEARING COMMUNITY INPUT
Next month, the “Save the Depot” committee will host a series of three meetings at the Northfield Community Resource Center to discuss the fate of the old train depot. The group wants to move the depot from its current location and restore the building, but would like input and suggestions from the community on the proposed project.
The first meeting is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. on March 1 and is open to all Northfielders. For more information, contact Lynn Vincent at 507-664-9554 or email savethehistoricdepot@gmail.com.
— David Henke covers the city. He can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
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Has anyone considered moving this to behind Walgreens, and using it as the focal point for the Transit Hub / Trail head?
Wow, I wonder what that would cost. I certainly sounds like a cool idea, but maybe hard to fund.
We lost our "gateway" in Northfield back in the '60's when the I-35 freeway by-passed Northfield in favor of Lakeville to Faribault/Owatonna. And an old depot will never bring it back, no matter how much is spent to restore and move it. We need to spend our money to bring new opportunities to Northfield that look to the next 30 years, and not look back to how great things seemed 60-80 years ago.
The depot is so far removed in time that few remember. What made it special was its place in the community, and the idea of moving it and turning it into something else would destroy any of that. That sum of money could probably be better used, as a previous opinion noted, to look toward for the future of Northfield.
a visitors centre? really? i didn't think northfield was a "tourist attraction".