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tuesday, March 29, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Herington residents lament razing of depot
By Donna Stokes
Kansan staff writer
Piles of rubble are all that remain of the Herington train depot. The landmark was demolished early Wednesday morning, unbeknownst to the town's 3,000 residents.
Dale Fulkerson/KANSAN
HERINGTON — Forty-mile-an-hour winds whipped limestone dust from a pile of rubble, spreading a thin film over this town that ows its existence to the railroad. The dust is all that is left of the town's 101-year-old
While the residents of Herington slept Wednesday morning, the limestone depot was destroyed by a wrecking company hired by its owner, the St. Louis-Southwestern Railway Company.
The local historical society was working to raise money to preserve the deposit
The depot was a symbol and landmark for the town of 3,000. It was registered on the Kansas Historic Register but was denied placement on the National Register of Historic Places because the Southern Pacific Corporation, the parent company of the St. Louis-Southwestern Railway Company, filed an objection.
Few things could have angered this small town 130 miles southwest of Lawrence more than the depot's
"I think the fact that they came in the middle of the night, when we were all asleep, is what really bothered us the most," said Norman Snyder, president of the Herington Historical Society. "I think they knew that if they would have done it at high noon or 8 a.m., they would have had a whole lot of people run down and get an injunction issued to stop them from doing it."
Snyder, who retired from the railroad four years ago after more than 38 years of service, now spends time in the society's Tri-County Museum, where he proudly shows visitors pictures of steam engines and the illustrious Rock Island Rocket passenger train that often visited the denot.
The museum includes the boots that M.D. Herington, the town's founder, wore in 1887 the day he went to Topeka to persuade officials to include Herington on the train route.
"It would have been nice to have had some of this in the denot some day." Snyder said.
In 1887, Herington gave the railroad 30,000 acres of land to convince officials to lay tracks through the town. At one time, around 1934, the railroad employed 500 to 600 people from Herington. Today, it employs 120 people.
"The railroad is what sponsored the town; it helped the town grow; it is what fed and clothed its people," Snyder said.
Snyder was one of many retired railroad workers who went to the depot site last week to pick up pieces of limestone to save as mementos. He also salvaged the benchmark, a stone block with the measurement of the sea level at Herington, from the rubble, and he is planning to place it in front of the museum.
It's about all we have to
Still, the memories linger.
Snyder and others who participated in the romanticism of the train era remember when the transcontinental railroad, owned by Rock Island Railroad, was the most exciting form of transportation and brought many important people to the depot.
"Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Taft and Truman all came to our depot, campaigning for the presidency." Snyder said. "I think the president had a very hard time."
He also remembers when the University of Southern
California's football team would stop over and practice on the high school football field, drawing large crowds from the town.
On April 26, 1950, 30 top movie stars stopped in Herington. John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were among the stars traveling to Illinois for the world premiere of "Rock Island Trails." They were met by more than 2,000 fans.
Everything the town was proud of seemed to center on the railroad.
Last year, Herington celebrated its centennial, featuring, naturally, its origins with the railroad. Even the high school mascot is the Railroader.
Ralph Will worked for the railroad in the 1940s and remembers riding passengers trains quite often. "The depot was very active at one time." Will said. "Of course, we're really upset about it being gone, but what can you
Snyder said, "That's the thing with big business. They
exploit the populace to get what they want, and then they manipulate it, not realizing what the consequences may be for others.
Railroad companies are destroying depots that are not purchased by the city and moved away from live tracks in many towns in Kansas. Depots not in use are still on the company's taxroll and are a liability hazard, Snyder said.
"I can understand their situation," Snyder said. "They said we could have it if we moved it, but we hadn't come up with enough money to move it." It would cost about $600,000 to move the depot.
Jim Johnson, spokesman for St. Louis-Southwestern Railway Company said, "I have gotten as many phone calls over this as I would have if a major derailment had occurred, in which an entire large city was contaminated and evacuated."
He said the company had tried to negotiate with Hertington residents for more than a year.
"We gave the town a couple of extensions on deadlines. We worked with them on it for over a year." Johnson said. "But we just couldn't wait forever until something happened.
"We expected it might take a couple days to collapse the building, but it took only 45 minutes, with a single
"It was done in the early morning because of safety reasons, not because we were trying to be sneaky.
Rethinks, not because, "In this country, you're supposed to have the right to do whatever you want to with your own property, as long as you don't endanger someone else's life. I can't see why we are the bad guy in this. If it wasn't for us, 120 people wouldn't be employed."
Project to preserve Lawrence railroad depot is well underway
"Some things I just don't understand. It's not that we haven't tried."
By Donna Stokes
Kansan staff writer
The 100-year-old Union Pacific depot in north Lawrence was once in danger of meeting the same fate as the depot in Herington, but it is now on its way to a new existence under the ownership of the City of Lawrence.
The Union Pacific Railway Company planned to destroy the depot in 1984 after the railroad stopped using it to house freight
has now gone to great lengths to help Lawrence preserve the historic building.
However, because of the persuasive efforts of the Save the Depot Task Force, a combination of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance and KU Crew, the company
"The Union Pacific has been so marvelous, fantastic and incredible about the whole thing," said Craig Patterson, chairman of the task force.
"Not only are they going to give us the building, they are going to let us leave it on their property, 90 feet away from where it is now and, on top of that, give us $100,000 in cash.
"It would have cost them only $10,000 to tear it down."
The Union Pacific's offer to let the depot remain on its property if it was moved further away from the active tracks is
important. The National Trust of Historic Preservation is hesitant about putting a building on the national register if it has been moved from its original location, said Nancy Shontz, member of the task force and the Lawrence Preservation Alliance.
"We may have started off on shaky ground," said Patterson, "but we have really proven ourselves. We convinced the Union Pacific that we are serious about this project and are willing to devote the time and money necessary to finish it.
"By allowing us to stay on the same property, it gives us a better chance of getting it registered," she said.
plans."
"We're going to move right ahead on our
Tomorrow night, the task force will meet to review a proposal by Warren Schwaubauer of Norton and Schmidt Consulting Engineers to move the building. Schwaubauer designed a scheme that, if approved, would be bid on by moving contractors this spring.
The relocation of the 600-ton depot will begin in August or September.
"The plans are quite clear," Patterson said. "All we need now is money."
The committee's biggest challenge is finding money to match funds provided by the Union Pacific. The committee collected about $20,000 in pledges, cash and
services last summer. The committee's request for help has been extended to corporations and citizens of the Lawrence community.
"If the Union Pacific cares enough to do all they did for us, then I would hope that corporations in the community would follow with similar help." Patterson said.
The committee plans to revive the depot in two phases, he said.
"The first phrase is obviously move it or lose it," Patterson said. "Move it or Lose it" has been the motto of the task force since last summer.
Phase two will be the historic preservation and reconstruction of the depot.
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