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(rshsdepot) Dothan, AL
- --- In alrails_@_yahoogroups.com, "bsmith3608" <bry3sm@...> wrote:
The former ACL passenger depot in Dothan appears to finally be headed
toward completion of the renovation started years ago. Here are a
few shots I have taken of the depot:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=104948
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=104949
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=104950
And here is a recent article which appeared in the Dothan Eagle
giving details of the upcoming work to be done on the depot:
http://dothaneagle.com/servlet/Satellite?
pagename=DEA/MGArticle/DEA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835110824&
path=!frontpage
Depot project picking up steam
Peggy Ussery / aussery_@_...
April 3, 2006
Landmark park Executive Director William Holman talks about plans to
renovate the Dixie Depot. (Photo by Jay Hare)
There was a time when the Dixie Depot stood as a gateway to Dothan.
Passengers would board and disembark the trains that passed by the
building. They'd make their way through the Atlantic Coastline
Railroad Passenger Depot, better known locally simply by Dixie.
Built around 1907, it hasn't been used as a passenger depot since
1979. For years there have been plans to bring the depot back to life
in some form. Red tape and personnel changes slowed the project, but
it appears as if the Dixie Depot renovations may finally be on track.
"I think we're finally in a position, we've dotted all the i's and
crossed all the t's, and, more importantly, we've found all the i's
to dot and the t's to cross," said John Sorrell, manager of the
Wiregrass Transit Authority, which will call the depot home when
renovations are complete.
Dothan City commissioners approved an architectural contract with
Waid Parrish & Associates last week after more than two years of
negotiating the contract's wording with the Alabama Department of
Transportation.
"I can really envision this project being completed in a year to a
year-and-a-half," Dothan Public Works Director Jerry Corbin
said. "We're going to be anxious to move it along now that we and the
architects are in control of it. It will have an opportunity to speed
along."
In 1999, the transit authority received a $1.25-million federal
transportation grant to purchase new buses and renovate the depot for
its offices. The City of Dothan pledged the depot and the land it's
on as a match. The state had to sign off on the architectural
contract and will review the construction contract when it is awarded.
It will be expensive to revive the 100-year-old depot - at least
$500,000, according to Corbin. But Sorrell said the depot makes an
ideal location for the transit authority. It's close to the
authority's current location at the Houston County administration
building. It's close to one of the neighborhoods served by the
authority.
"And, it is a historic transportation structure, and we are in the
transportation business," Sorrell said.
But the depot was once just days away from being lost forever.
In the late 1980s, a curious downtown revitalization supporter called
the railroad company to inquire about the Dixie Depot, said William
Holman, executive director of Landmark Park. The railroad it turned
out had taken demolition bids and was just days from tearing down the
depot.
The rush to save it was on, and the City of Dothan stepped in to
purchase the building - leasing it to Landmark Park for a possible
railroad museum. The depot eventually became listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
"It turned out there were only a few left between here and
Montgomery," Holman said of the depot. "There used to be one at every
stop. Every little cross town had a depot. It was really something
that was vanishing from the landscape. Landmark felt then and still
feels now that it's a very important building. It served as a gateway
to the community."
A new roof was put on, but little else happened to improve the
building simply because funding was short, Holman said. Landmark Park
still holds a lease on the building, and Holman said he hopes a
railroad museum might still be possible. But the transit authority,
he said, is a good fit.
"We thought it was a perfect idea for (the Wiregrass Transit)
operation to move into that building because it returns it to a
transportation use," Holman said.
The City of Dothan will retain ownership of the building and land.
And most agree that improving the depot will have a positive effect
on the Dixie community, which has seen a resurgence of private
investment in the last few years.
"It strikes me from an anecdotal standpoint that anything we do in
that neighborhood to revitalize, to bring people in, to bring
stability in, is not a bad thing," Sorrell said. "It's a good thing."
=================================
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 #1332
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org