Depot historic registry listing recommended

CHENEY – The Historic Preservation Commission took a major step last Thursday, Nov. 5, towards possibly creating a new icon for downtown Cheney.

The commission gave its approval to inclusion of the recently relocated Northern Pacific Railroad Depot on the city’s historical registry along with its application for special valuation. The approval now moves to the City Council as a recommendation of passage from the commission, with the council having the final say.

Including the depot on the locally registry isn’t just a show piece. The move would allow the organization spearheading its move and restoration, the Cheney Depot Society, to apply for special tax valuations for any qualifying work associated with its rehabilitation.

It’s important because moving the structure hasn’t come cheap, nor will its rehabilitation and repurposing as a working building.

“Right now, it’s standing at about a $1.2 million project,” Depot Society member Sue Beeman told the commission.

Beeman said rehabilitation of the building’s interior is estimated at around $900,000. In an Nov. 6 email, Beeman said this was not included in the $1.2 million estimate, which was done over two years ago as the moving and restoration project began to pick up steam.

“The $900,000 figure was (project general contractor) Walker Construction’s estimate this spring of the cost to finish the building to usable condition, including interior rehab, remaining site work and utilities,” Beeman said.

It also cost the society $403,000 to move the structure — which was done in one piece this summer by Mount Vernon-based movers DB Davis, relocating the building from its original position next near Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks to where it currently sits on 1st Street near Union Street. Beeman told the commission that in the long run, while expensive, it may have actually saved money as several contractors contacted originally said they could move the structure but would have to cut it into thirds.

Reconnecting the build pieces would have cost more money than what DB Davis charged to move it whole, Beeman added.

The depot was originally determined eligible for inclusion on the National Parks Service’s historic registry in 1990 by the state Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation, but has yet to be nominated. Listing on the local registry would also be a step towards that achievement.

The depot was originally built in 1929, but was done using Spanish Mission-style architecture more widespread in the Southwest, along with elements of “the Art Deco trends prevalent in the 1930s,” according to information in the presentation given to the commission by Cheney senior planner Brett Lucas. Railroads typically built depots in architectural styles more consistent with local styles where the buildings were located.

“This was not a standard floor plan or style of the Northern Pacific Railroad, generally they were brick,” Lucas told the commission, pointing to examples of this in Ritzville and Sandpoint, Idaho.

“This style of architecture is probably very common on the Sante Fe Railroad,” Lucas continued. “As you get up here into the northern latitudes, on the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road railroads this is a very rare style architecture.”

At its old location, the depot had originally been slated for demolition in 2014, but when the city declined to move the building due to financial reasons, private citizens stepped up to raise the funding needed to relocate it to 1st Street. In doing so, Lucas said the building was actually rotated 180 degrees in order for the business side of the station — where passengers would embark or disembark — to face the street.

“We really do want the building to be an asset to the community and reach out towards the downtown,” Depot Society member Terry Mourning said, adding rotating it allows the original covered baggage-area to be more useful since it would be on the building’s north side rather than the south and exposed to the sun.

Mourning said plans for refurnishing the depot included installation of simulated rails on the front side facing the street. Beeman added many of the building’s original but unattached features have been safely stored for the time when funding is obtained to restart the restoration process.

The society has been very active in combining private fundraising with public funding, using a pledge by former Cheney and now-Alaska resident Dr. Peter Hansen to match every dollar raised up to $500,000 to help out. Hansen has contributed $290,000 so far, while the society has obtained grant funding that helped purchase the land the depot is now on, along with a $366,000 grant from the state Historical Society’s Heritage Capital Projects Advisory Panel fund that helped cover moving expenses.

The society also received a $50,00 grant from the Avista Foundation in January, with half going to exterior work costs and the other half for the interior. Beeman said they once again are on the list for another round of Historical Society funding should the Legislature award money to that fund — something that would not happen until next summer and require matching funds.

“As a priority, we do have to raise a considerable amount of money between now and the first of July,” she added.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].