(rshsdepot) Colma, CA

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

One stop left on the line for historic Colma train depot


By Emily Fancher
STAFF WRITER - San Mateo County Times

Tuesday, April 08, 2003 - COLMA -- Colma's historic train depot, built in
1881, is the oldest structure in town. After being moved twice in the 1990s
due to BART construction, the depot will soon chug to its terminus.

The depot will be trucked to 1500 Hillsdale Blvd. on Wednesday, where it
will be refurbished and eventually reopened as a transportation mini-museum,
part of a larger Colma history museum.

The depot will be part of the Town of Colma Historical and Cultural Park, a
two-acre development slated to open in the spring of 2004. The park will
also include a 6,000-square-foot cultural center with the Recreation
Department offices, a community hall for banquets and a meeting space.

Town Planner Mac Carpenter said Colma has outgrown its current community
space on F Street, which is only 900 square feet.

The train depot will open as a mini-museum on train, streetcar and BART
travel.

The museum will have interpretive displays on the history of the depot. For
example, beginning in 1887, the Southern Pacific started its first funeral
train from San Francisco to Colma. Mourners paid 50 cents for the half-hour
trip, while caskets cost $1. It was also used to ship vegetables and
flowers, a major part of the area's thriving agricultural industry in the
19th century.

Additionally, a freight train depot that was moved two weeks ago will be
renovated, original Southern Pacific tracks will be laid down and a replica
of a blacksmith shop will be built.

The main Colma History Museum will be housed in the old offices of Olivet
Cemetery, a 1910 Spanish colonial structure. The museum will focus on the
history of the cemeteries and the related flower and monument businesses.

Patricia Hatfield, director of the Colma Historical Association, said she's
looking forward to the move after 10 years in a trailer in the parking lot
of City Hall. She said the association has two storage facilities where it
keeps the memorabilia that will eventually fill the museums.

Hatfield said the town's history is inherently interesting "because of the
way we became the town of Colma. With San Francisco evicting its bodies, we
inherited hundreds of thousands of bodies to begin with. Many famous people
like Joe DiMaggio and Wyatt Earp are here."

The town is paying $5.5 million for the entire project, but the association
is responsible for the $150,000 to set up the displays in the museum, about
half of which has been raised. Hatfield said she has applied for grants for
the rest.

Elisa Skaggs, a designer for Page & Turnbull, an architecture firm that
focuses on historic preservation, said the depot is typical of Southern
Pacific Railroad construction from the 1880s, with its gabled roof and
A-frame structure.

"I think this'll give the town of Colma something to be excited about," said
Skaggs. "This area that has been neglected for so long will have a sense of
place."

For more information on the Colma Historical Association, call 757-1676.

Staff writer Emily Fancher covers Colma, Daly City, South San Francisco, and
Brisbane. She can be reached at 348-4340.


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

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #632
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org