(rshsdepot) Dade City, FL

["Jim Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

-From the Tampa FL Tribune...

Jun 20, 2001
Space available, but depot lacks marketing
JULIET GREER
of The Tampa Tribune

DADE CITY - On any given day, as trains whiz by the restored 1912 train
depot, the floor rocks and the walls rattle.
Ten to 15 freight trains and two passenger trains - one headed north to New
York at and one south to Miami - swoop up passengers, or otherwise barrel
alongside town, waking up those still nestled in beds within earshot of the
track at what was called the Old Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Station.

The depot is home to a satellite bureau of the Pioneer Florida Museum, and
is chock full of old-time goodies: seats and memorabilia from the now closed
Pasco Twin Theater, Pasco County's first school bus (a small wooden wagon)
an old train conductor's suit, and lanterns conductors used to swing back
and forth by hand to let the engineer know if everyone was safely on the
train.

But aside from the museum, this brick Victorian style train station sits
empty. Passengers must purchase tickets from travel agents in Dade City as
there is no ticket office. There is no passenger waiting area inside the
depot, rather they must wait on a deck next to the train station.

A cab company and the nonprofit Women's Peacepower Foundation moved out over
a year ago.

There is room for two other offices, but nobody is renting from the city,
which owns the depot.

``We just really haven't tried to push it,'' said Dade City City Manager
Doug Drymon. ``We haven't tried hard to get people in there. We've just had
other things to do that are more demanding.''

The city donates rental space to the museum. It could rent out the rest of
the roughly 4,000-square-foot building.

Drymon said part of the problem of renting the building is that the air
conditioning controls are the same throughout the building, which is not
conducive to divided offices.

Drymon said this may be a factor as to why the space isn't rented, but it is
not the main cause of unrented space. The main reason is city officials
haven't marketed the space, he said. Cost to renovate was more than
$500,000. The money was spent to preserve the structure and for use by the
museum.

But museum officials would like to use more of the building.

Eileen Herman, president of the Pioneer Florida Museum Association, said the
museum is considering approaching the city about using the now empty center
section of the depot for a records room.

The depot, which sits at U.S. 98 Bypass and Meridian Avenue, is on the
National Register of Historic Places.

To be on the National Register of Historic Places, the depot had to meet
criteria set forth by the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park
Service. Properties listed in the National Register include districts,
sites, buildings, structures and objects that are significant in American
history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture. Sites must be
associated with events that have made a significant contribution to U.S.
history.

Dade City's depot was built in 1912 by the Atlantic Coast Line. The railway
was used to ship citrus and lumber from the region at first. By 1950, the
frozen citrus concentrate industry had grown in Florida, and the railroad
served freight and passenger transportation.

The depot was renovated in 1996, with grant money from the state Department
of Transportation. Renovations were made to preserve the structure because
of its age and so that the museum could use it.

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #91
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