Re: (rshsdepot) DoubleDecker at Union Station, Columbus, Ohio c. 1907-1915

[Ivan Berger <oldmaven_@_comcast.net>]

Paul Luchter wrote:

> Union Station c. 1910-1915:
> http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~rocky/PostcardHTML/unionsta_columbus.htm
>  This is exquisite. People would visit Columbus more if it still looked like this

I used to know someone who lived in that building.  It was part of the station
complex, but apparently not the station itself -- the latter was a more modest, red
brick building behind it, down at track level.  You got to the station by driving
through an archway (as i recall, it was to the right of the area shown in the photo);
the tracks ran through an underpass beneath the road the building shown is on.

My friend was an artist who had spotted the building's possibilities, discovered it
was vacant, and rented a section of it from the railroad.  Her section had apparently
been used by a beer distributor for receiving deliveries by rail;  it had a large,
garage-like basement where the beer wagons used to be, accessible from a driveway
that ran around the left side of the building.  The basement was large enough that
she and a friend restored a Chinese junk there -- a 34-footer, as I recall.  The
ground floor was a vast space, two generous stories high, into which she'd put a
kitchen with a sleeping loft above it;  on the top was a large room with windows on
all four sides, perfect for studio use.

Alas, I've lost track of her -- she married the friend who helped her restore the
junk, but first made him change his name (which was Krapp); if anyone knows them, I'd
be happy to hear from them again.

- -Ivan Berger


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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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