RE: (rshsdepot) Fontana, CA

["Paul Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

I presume they knocked down the large Mission-style station in the middle
of Venice Boulevard by now (sure I know I probably asked before, maybe I
blocked out a bad answer)?


> [Original Message]
> From: <jdent1_@_optonline.net>
> To: rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net <rshsdepot@lists.railfan.net>
> Date: 7/21/2006 4:42:35 PM
> Subject: (rshsdepot) Fontana, CA
>
> 7/21/2006 12:00 AM 
>  
> Fontana Pacific Electric train depot now restored 
>  
> By Leonor Vivanco, Staff Writer
> Inland Valley Daily Bulletin 
>  
> FONTANA - Ninety years after it was built, city officials pried open the
heavy, welded doors of one of the city's historic treasures.
> When they walked into the Pacific Electric railroad freight train depot
on Spring Avenue near Nuevo Avenue last fall, they realized just how
dormant the building had become.
>
> ‘‘Inside, it was almost pitch black,'' said Ray Bragg, the city's
director of redevelopment and special projects. 
>
> ‘‘It was like walking into a Halloween haunted house with real-live
cobwebs.''
>
> Crews then began cleaning the depot, which was constructed in 1915, and
put on a white coat of paint to brighten up the building, preparing it for
its new life. Doors and windows were ordered to replicate the historic feel.
>
> ‘‘I can't believe how good it looks,'' Bragg said.
>
> The refurbished depot will now house a pottery studio, art gallery and
coffee shop.
>
> The $438,000 project started in September, and the building just received
its certificate of occupancy with the businesses now moving into their new
digs. 
>
> The city's summer concert series is being held outside the depot from
6:30 to 8:30 p.m. each Thursday through Aug. 24.
>
> ‘‘The coffee shop is going to give the people downtown, at City Hall and
working people down there, a place to go and sit down and chat with
friends,'' said Joan Geist, community relations representative for the
Fontana Downtown Revitalization Task Force.
>
> The depot is expected to once again be the gathering place it was during
its heyday in the 1940s.
>
> ‘‘There was a lot of activity there with people going in and out. It was
very active back then,'' said Geist, also a member of the Fontana
Historical Society.
>
> Rail cars hauled citrus until the depot's freight operations ceased in
the 1950s. The depot later had a couple of different uses, including
serving as a mercantile store before being vacated in the 1980s, Bragg said.
>
> ‘‘We're really happy we're able to reuse the building as a way to remind
people of the past as well as looking forward into the future,'' Bragg said.
>
> It is located near the Fontana Historical Society at the Hazel Putnam
Historical Plaza. 
>
> ‘‘The prize was where the passenger depot was,'' said society member Joe
Bono.
>
> The 1974 demolition of that structure, which featured Greek columns,
sparked residents to get involved in saving the city's older buildings.
>
> The historical society was founded by Mary Vagle when she saw old
buildings being torn down and tried to save the Pacific Electric passenger
depot.
>
> ‘‘We have to save what's left,'' Bono said. 
>  
>
> =================================
> The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
> railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
>
>
>
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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