The 114-year-old Santa Fe Depot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, recently reopened to the public after going through two years and $1.6 million in renovations.
The depot is just a couple of blocks west of the 1926-1937 alignment of Route 66 in Santa Fe. And because many Route 66 fans also are railroad buffs, many will take the short side trip to see it.
Here are some photos from the city of the ribbon-cutting ceremony last week for the reopened depot in the Santa Fe Railyard area.
For reference, here’s what the depot looked like in 1916:
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the face-lift used $600,000 in sales-tax revenue, a $20,000 state preservation grant and a tax bond.
Barbara Felix, owner of Woven Architecture, led the effort to restore the depot, and it wasn’t easy.
Felix said the neglected property was in such disrepair, it nearly met with demolition.
Leaks plagued the roof, and its support beams, parapets, trusses and roof decking were all but rotted. The building’s problems were so pronounced, the city was forced to install temporary shoring to prevent its exposed wooden framing from collapsing. It had even been deemed a public safety risk. […]
Chips of paint were sent to laboratories where technicians carefully looked into their layers to determine original colors, she said.
“The depot had been beige with teal windows and doors,” Felix said. “The original colors are what’s now on the building, with the exception of the white paint on the exterior. The windows were originally black and the woodwork was a butterscotch or buttery brown. The interior has green trim and a white and beige wall.”
Originally, the exterior wasn’t painted since it was created with pebbledash, a style of stucco.
The city was originally slated to have an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe rail line there, but difficult terrain prompted the railroad to bypass Santa Fe and run the tracks to Lamy, New Mexico, instead.
An 18-mile spur line eventually was laid to Santa Fe, and the depot was built in 1909.
Trains still use the depot. The New Mexico Rail Runner that runs from Belen through Albuquerque to Santa Fe began service in 2008.
—