Sean C. Morgan
Public Works Director Mike Adams plans to reach out to the Rick Franklin Corporation, which owns and operates the Albany and Eastern rail line, to find out if the company has any interest in acquiring the old Oregon Electric Railroad depot.
The depot sat behind McDonald’s, on property owned by Lester Sales in the 2000 block of Main Street, for most of the past 20 years. Bob Waibel, Ben Dahlenburg and the late John Slauson led an effort to move it north along an old railroad spur from the approximate location of McDonald’s to make room for the new restaurant. They have been the owners during that period.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the spur came together with another just south of the main line and ran south through Sweet Home, across the Huskies baseball complex, the Jim Riggs Community Center and Sankey Park and then west along the south edge of town along what is now the South Hills Trail toward Holley. Trains would turn around using the switches at the intersection.
Slauson, Waibel and Dahlenburg had hoped to use the depot as a destination point for an excursion train.
“Maybe it can still happen,” Dahlenburg said.
Over the years, others have expressed interest in preserving the depot as a tourist center or railroad museum. So far none of these ideas have come to fruition.
The depot is now owned by the city Dahlenburg said. “I’m glad to see it used whether it’s used by the city or whatever.”
Meanwhile, Bi-Mart purchased the property last spring to build a new store. When that happened, Public Works Maintenance Supt. Pat Wood spearheaded a project to move and save the depot. Mike Melcher, Scott Melcher and Jim Cota of Timber Harvesting, Inc., developed and carried out the plan to move the structure in conjunction with Public Works.
They moved the structure approximately four blocks to the Public Works Maintenance Yard off 24th Avenue.
Adams met with the Public Works Committee on Feb. 4 to discuss the fate of the depot.
“I wanted to find out how we want to proceed, with whom, and in what manner, to ultimately decide where we’re going to place this,” Adams said. “We don’t want it to be out of sight out of mind like it was.”
It’s an important building to some people, and it’s got historical value, Adams said.
The city could put it on blocks and use it as storage, Adams said, or it could sell the building to someone interested in using it. Rick Franklin Corporation could use it as a train stop. The city also could place it in a park.
The city’s original intent was to secure it and preserve it until someone came up with a plan for it, Adams said.
It will need some work if the city is going to hang onto it and use it, Adams said.
Councilor Craig Fentiman, a member of the Public Works Committee, recalled the effort to relocate and restore Weddle Bridge in Sweet Home in the 1990s, and assurances the city wouldn’t have to maintain it. Years later, the city owns the bridge and is maintaining it. He said he does not want to see the depot end up the same way long term.
He said he didn’t know where to put it, but the logical place right now is where it’s at. He agreed that the city should check with the Rick Franklin Corporation, but if it cannot work out a deal with the company, it should remain where it is for now – until the community decides to do something with it.
“If someone wants to turn it into a museum, that might be something,” Fentiman said. “I can’t see us just plopping it in a park.”
Anyone who has ideas for the structure and how to achieve them may contact Adams at (541) 367-6243.