(rshsdepot) Manhattan, KS

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_home.com>]

City restoring 100-year-old depot

Building: Project begins with a half-million-dollar face lift, roof
restoration

By Chris Grenz
The Capital-Journal

MANHATTAN -- The century-old Union Pacific Train Depot in Manhattan is on
track to returning one day to a place of prominence in the community.

After years of talk and several rounds of denied grant requests, a project
is under way to restore the depot to its original condition, when it was
built in 1901 for $10,000. The entire project is likely to take years, and
fund raising will continue to be an issue.

But workers have begun the first phase of the rehabilitation: a
half-million-dollar refurbishing of the outside of the old building. When
that phase is completed early next spring, officials will turn to the
building's interior, for which fund raising has just begun in private
circles. The city hopes to receive more grant money, but already has been
turned down for a 2003 Kansas Department of Transportation grant.


The building survived additions and remodeling, the flood of 1951 and a fire
in 1981. The last passenger train left in 1971, and freight trains quit
stopping at the depot in 1984. The building hasn't been in use since then.

The city traded land with Union Pacific in 1990 to allow the construction of
Manhattan's mall, the realignment of Fort Riley Boulevard, and the
construction of a new K-177 highway bridge. As part of the realignment, the
tracks were moved across the street from the depot.

Now, the little building sits alone in the shadow of a highway overpass,
tucked away almost out of site to passing motorists.

The future use of the depot hasn't been determined, though everything from a
restaurant to a museum has been suggested. Davis said the city must retain
possession of the building to remain in line with the rules of the KDOT
grant. As such, it will continue to be a building for the community to use,
she said.

"It's really been the center of a lot of pieces of Manhattan's history,"
Davis said. "People went to war from the depot in World War I and World War
II. Teddy Roosevelt once stopped there and spoke from the back of a train.
There is a lot of history linked to that building."

Photo available at: http://cjonline.com/stories/090401/kan_depot.shtml

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