[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

(rshsdepot) Whittier, CA

Transportation Depot seeks items for museum

By Ben Baeder
Staff Writer - Whittier Daily News

WHITTIER -- If its walls could speak, the 115-year-old Whittier
Transportation Depot no doubt would have some grand stories to tell.
Until the 1970s, the former train station was a hub for passengers with
destinations all over California.

Hoping to collect and display some of the depot's rich history, its manager,
Susan Chow, is asking people with a piece or two of train memorabilia to
donate any artifacts. Those items will be housed in a room set aside within
the depot for a museum, she said.

But while Chow has posted notices in three newspapers and on the city's
Internet site seeking such artifacts, few donors have come forward.

"An old clock, railroad silverware, schedules we're not limiting it to rare
things. We want people to come in and not just see a meeting room,' she
said.

The room where officials hope to install the mini-museum is now empty,
except for a black-and-white photograph of a steam train. Apart from that,
the only donation of memorabilia is a stack of old ticket stubs with
colorful advertisements and wartime propaganda.

The depot building, which is now a bus station and headquarters for
Whittier's public transportation, is the last of its architectural style,
according to literature from the city of Whittier.

Chow hopes to work with a California High School architecture class in the
design of the museum.

Chow and the Whittier Historic Depot Task Force, a group appointed by the
City Council to oversee the depot, hope the museum will offer residents
information about Whittier's past while they wait to catch a bus at the stop
in front of the facility.

"We want (visitors) to feel connected the building's past,' Chow said. Ben
Baeder can be reached at (562) 698-0955, Ext. 3024, or by e-mail at
ben.baeder_@_sgvn.com .


=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------