Sean C. Morgan
City official takes it upon himself to save historic structure
Sweet Home Public Works Maintenance Supt. Pat Wood wants to preserve the railroad depot, which is on property where Bi-Mart is planning to build a new store.
The property is owned by Lester Sales.
To move the building, he’ll need permission from the property owners, the owners of the depot, Linn County and Sweet Home officials, he said. He’s already had informal approval from most but nothing official yet. Once he has the OK from everyone involved, he plans to pull the old depot some four blocks across county property to the Public Works maintenance yard.
“I haven’t got anything in writing from anybody,” Wood said last week. “It’s only been two days.”
The depot, which was owned by Ben Dahlenburg, Bob Waibel and the late John Slauson, sits on property just north of McDonald’s in the 2000 block of Main Street.
The depot sat further south, where McDonald’s is now, in the late 1930s and 1940s, Wood said. The railroad had two spurs that came together there and ran southwest toward Holley. The trains would turn around using the switches at the intersection.
There was a mill and wigwam burner at the location too, Wood said, noting that he has seen a photo from the period in the Genealogy Society’s recent photographic history book.
The depot was moved north by Dahlenburg, Waibel and Slauson some 20 years ago when McDonald’s was built, Wood said. It was just supposed to stay there for a few months.
Waibel and Slauson had hoped to turn the depot into an attraction, a museum and a starting point for an excursion train. The depot hasn’t moved since then.
Wood plans to rig runners and a log structure underneath the depot, he said. He’ll need to rent a bulldozer to pull it, but that’s about the only expense. He’ll use logs the city already owns.
Wood wants to drag it across the remaining railroad spur, which is on Lester Sales property and then onto county property, the former Willamette Industries and Weyerhaeuser mill site, south of the Albany and Eastern Railroad line.
During the project, Wood and his crew will need to clear some brush to make way, and they’ll clean up and do some repairs inside the depot.
Wood doesn’t know for sure how it will work, he said. The structure has some weak points.
“I’ve never moved a building before,” Wood said, but he’s going to give it a shot. If Bi-Mart starts building, he’s concerned the company will bulldoze the depot.
“I like history,” Wood said. “I like old stuff. I grew up in Brownsville. The whole town is historic.”
Sweet Home started in a different era, Wood said. “Sweet Home doesn’t really have anything.”
But the depot does represent Sweet Home’s history, Wood said. “Even though it doesn’t have any great architecture, it’s now one of the last of its era.”
Other communities have saved and used their historic depots, he said. Halsey has converted its former depot into a city hall, and Lebanon’s is a visitor’s information center.
In addition to the historic value, the depot is important to Waibel, and the Waibel family is important to Wood, he said. When he graduated from high school, Wood went to work with Waibel for Waibel’s brother, Jim; and they were good to him.
Wood even has a use for the building until something else is done with the building.
“I want to see something done,” he said. “For the life of me, I can’t think of a thing you could do with it. I’m hoping in 10 to 15 years somebody will want to something with it.”
But he can use it for storage, he said. He had requested funds for new maintenance buildings in the city budget, but the money hasn’t been approved. This is a low-cost way to provide the storage he needs at the maintenance yard.
“I’m going to view it as a temporary spot,” Wood said, and it will be preserved.
“I think it’s just going to be a fun project,” Wood said. “The crew is really excited.”