Tehachapi News

Dedicated 'Friends' enjoy first peek at depot

By: Nick Smirnoff

Topics: Dedicated 'Friends' enjoy first peek at depot

It was an overflow celebration Wed., June 2, as Friends of the Tehachapi Depot enjoyed a sneak peak of the newly rebuilt and beautifully decorated Tehachapi Railroad Depot and Museum.

The wine and cheese membership drive/fundraiser attracted approximately 150 people to the first event to be held at the reborn depot, which burned to the ground June 13, 2008.

The official public re-opening and dedication ceremony will be Saturday, June 5 at noon.

The Friends of the Tehachapi Depot members were the first to see hundreds of photos, displays and artifacts in place in their new home.  

Curator and Friends of the Tehachapi Depot member Charles White  oversaw the creation of the displays that were lovingly assembled by fellow depot members and a cadre of volunteers.

Outside the building,, the Depot Signal Garden  contains a vast array of railroad signaling devices, that were collected by the late Bill Stokoe.

In the display’s final stages of onsite assemblage, depot volunteers  will re-electrify the signals  so that by the press of a button visitors can make the vintage signals clang, ring or light up as they were built to do.

The original building, constructed in 1904 (even then it was a replacement for a structure that had burned down), was placed on the National Register of Historic Buildings. 

The Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the land, turned the depot over to the city, at which time planning for restoration could begin in earnest.

The painstaking restoration went up in smoke when the fire, begun by illegal fireworks, destroyed the building just two weeks before it was scheduled to open to the public in summer, 2008.

The fire sprinkler system was scheduled to be tested the very next day.

Tehachapi's heartbroken community immediately got behind a rebuilding effort.

After clearing away the charred timbers and grading for a new foundation, contractors Aspen Builders and the city construction crew found archeological layers that told the story of the first structure (dating back to when the rainroad came through in 1897) and the 1904 fire. A dedicated crew of Friends of the Depot men spent months retrieving  and cleaning old bricks  that will be resued.

The new structure is safer and more functional than it was before, meeting current fire and Americans with Disabilities Act codes while maintaining  the original design.

Even the depot’s original clock, in safekeeping for decades, now hangs exactly where it did when the depot served passengers.

The adjacent park will be a tempting draw for tourists and families.

The Tehachapi Railroad Depot and Museum dedication Saturday promises  to be an exciting community event.

The price is free and the entire community will feel a burst of pride as this fabled landmark once again graces downtown Tehachapi.