New Museum Display Site

RUSHVILLE B&O PASSENGER DEPOT

Depots as a structure type, have survived in greater numbers than many other railroad buildings. Through imaginative reuse many have been saved and converted into local museums, homes, and businesses of various types. Many have been moved and unfortunately are no longer near railroad tracks. Some have had to be moved back from active tracks to allow for them to be saved, others have required fences to separate them from active tracks. A few in the Midwest are owned by railroad museums and are often used for museum office space and gift shops. None of the existing passenger depots in Indiana are presently configured as they would have been originally have been. Few of the depots that have been saved are located within the context of a working passenger railroad environment with full platforms and period settings.

The Whitewater Valley Railroad Interpretive Center will provide an appropriate context for this building leaving it essentially as built, preserved as an artifact without the need for adaptive reuse. The waiting room and ticket offices will include period equipment, most of which is available at the WVRR, without modern equipment spoiling the experience.

This 1911 building, though somewhat plain architecturally, is a representative of standard plan passenger depot structures throughout the Midwest. Though in poor condition, it is generally intact and complete. Given that it is representative or regional buildings it will interpret the role of such buildings in the railroad industry very well. The key interpretive concept will be to highlight the function of the passenger depot in a small town. This includes covering the services provided by the railroad’s ticket agent including ticket sales, Western Union services, train orders, and other administrative functions such as mail handling. The concept of how societal mores of the time essentially dictated the floor plan of the building could also be explored with the family waiting room and men's waiting room, though this might have to be developed further to be meaningful to visitors of today. Communication systems centered in this depot including the telegraph and the train order signal would also be explained and highlighted. The last part of the passenger depot story is how the end of rail passenger services eliminated the need for these buildings. It appears the last regular B&O passenger train serving Rushville left this station in 1948. The building was then used for signal parts and general company use. The building will retain its Rushville and B&O identities as part of the exhibit. This will include replicating the Rushville depot sign on both ends of the building. An appropriate plaque would be installed to explain the original location and circumstances that required it to be moved. This building will also be used to display appropriate furniture, heating stoves, and similar equipment to complete the visitor experience. A train order semaphore has been donated for the project and will be installed outside the bay window in operable condition.

Interpretation Methods:

It will be interpreted primarily through the display of furniture, artifacts, documents, equipment, along with written displays. A video or sound display may be beneficial to show basic depot functions along with more complex concepts of train orders and telegraph operations. This might be hidden in some way. One mini exhibit activity might allow visitors to use the telegraph in the office connected to another point. The intention is that all rooms of the building should be open to the public when completed.

General Structure Design:

A single story frame building with slight roof overhangs. The total footprint area of this building is approximately 26.5’ x 61’. The floor plan of this building has two waiting rooms (one for families, the other for men), an office in the center, and two restrooms. The women's restroom is accessed through the family waiting room and the men's from the outside. A brick platform originally surrounded the structure and this feature will be duplicated. The front of the building (bay office window) faces the main track. Electrical, water, and sewer service to this structure are planned for installation. The exterior of the building is presently sheathed with aluminum siding. This siding will be removed to expose the original. Where the original is damaged it should be replaced with like materials. The roof will be replaced with red three tab shingles to the B&O railroad standard. Likewise, the exterior will be painted in the cream base color with brown trim per B&O Railroad standards. Interior floors will be refinished after research determines the original finish types. The office flooring may require complete replacement due to fire damage and later modernization with 9"x9" floor tiles. The floor is completely burned through in at least one location from a fire set when the building was not in use. Ceiling and wall board materials in the office also have suffered from moderate fire damage and may need substantial replacement. Interior ceilings and walls should be repaired with matching materials and painted in appropriate colors following paint sample research. Ceiling materials in the west waiting room (men's) have suffered badly from water intrusion and will need to be replaced as needed with like materials. If paint research is not conclusive, the B&O standard colors will be used following B&O documentation. The building will be heated using original style stoves vented through the building’s three flues. Existing modern bathroom fixtures will be replaced with period originals as available or replica fixtures.

Priority Level in Museum Site / Structure Issues

The owner has indicated that we are the “last chance” for this building. Plans to demolish the building are temporarily on hold to give us the opportunity to move the building. Foundation plans have been drawn up.

The section 106 process has caused us to be unable to meet owner timelines and has threatened to allow the depot to be demolished before FHWA paperwork will allow funding to be released. These hurdles have been overcome at this point, though the process of building the foundation and moving the building through the TE system is yet to be completed. The plan is to move the base of the building in one piece with the removal of the roof. Once moved, our first priority needs to include installation of the roof, roof deck repairs, and new shingles to prevent further structural and cosmetic damage to the depot.

Special New Location Considerations:

It will be located along the southbound site track just to the northeast of the diamond. To match its original location, the depot will be located with the front corner of the structure near the track crossing “diamond”. This would replicate the former Pennsylvania Railroad crossing of the B&O in Rushville. The brick platform should extend all the way to the rail edge as the original once did. Provision have been made to reinstall the train order semaphore blades in front of the bay window, with a poured base with studs for the mast.

Supporting artifacts available for this project:

A number of items including desks, chairs, a large railroad table, typewriters, communications boxes, a train order board, blackboard, and a full manual semaphore train order signal with controls are on hand. Antique benches from the collection (though slightly older than the depot) might be used here if better, more appropriate, examples cannot be found. Several baggage carts are also available.

Supporting artifacts needed to complete the display:

At least one candlestick phone, telegraph key and sounder, three coal stoves, waiting room benches, two cast iron wall mounted sinks with hardware, two siphon wash down toilets either high or low tank. A safe for the office is also required along with appropriate depot clocks, calendars, and other similar materials. Historic photos of the exterior and interior of this building are still being sought. Antique soda water fire extinguishers made prior to 1954 and a telegraph key / sounder are also being sought for display in the interior. Please let us know if you have any of these items that you'd like to donate to the project.

2005	November 20, 2007	November 21, 2007	December 20, 2007
December 31, 2007	February 10, 2008	February 10, 2008	February 10, 2008
February 10, 2008	February 10, 2008	February 10, 2008	February 16, 2008
February 23, 2008	March 12, 2008	April 5, 2008	April 5, 2008
April 21, 2008	June 6, 2009

Whitewater Valley Railroad Connersville, Indiana New Museum Interpretive Center - Under Design & Construction