Station Profile: Santa Fe Railway Depot, Fresno
On Feb. 12, 2005, I attended the Santa Fe Railway Station Fresno rededication.
The depot rededication capped off a multi-year restoration. The station, now served by Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses, previously belonged to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (or Santa Fe, for short) but was, however, property of the San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railroad before that. It was opened to the public for use at century’s end, the 19th century, that is.
So, a little history.
I guess if you know the history of the SF&SJV, then you also know the story behind its Fresno station. The SF&SJV was a rival of the then Southern Pacific Railroad in the Valley which was, up until the former arrived, the only railroad game in town, if you will.
The SF&SJV successfully broke that stranglehold. (Full disclosure: I don’t know all that well the history of the structure. So, it should obviously make for a good research project to find out more about it). That said, I did do three write-ups on this historic building. One was featured in an issue of Fresno magazine, that is, when it was a thing and still in print in 2005, the second was in the July 28, 2003 issue of the newsletter Destination: Freedom, and the third — a commentary titled: “Rebirth or requiem for the old Santa Fe train depot?” was published in the Feb. 10, 2000 Neighbors newspaper, Northwest Edition, a local publication.
Okay, so back to the bit about depot restoration, at issue was whether to “restore” the existing building, which, by that time, looked every bit its age (100), somewhat-to-much the worse for wear (it having fallen into its then present state of disrepair; that is, there were boarded up doors and windows on the side of the structure facing west, and it was impossible to not notice apparently well-rooted vegetation growing on the building’s roof, to name just two) or build anew (a proposal was put forth to construct a brand new depot located south of the existing freight office building which can be seen to the right of the train in the second photo).
Well, as if you cannot already tell, restoration won the day. And, as for that rededication ceremony, none other than Alan Autry, yes, the same Alan Autry that had starring roles in the tv drama series and sitcom In the Heat of the Night and Grace Under Fire, respectively, as then Mayor of the City of Fresno, presided over the rededication ceremony of the Santa Fe depot located on the corner of Tulare Street and the aptly named Santa Fe Avenue in downtown in front of both a station-admiring and receptive crowd.
Update: Jun. 8, 2024 at 9:25 p.m. PDT.
Image data: Wikimedia Commons (upper); Alan Kandel (lower)
All material copyrighted 2024, Alan Kandel. All Rights Reserved.