After a nine-month-long hiatus in roof work due to delay in delivery of the tiles, work has resumed on restoring the roof of the Keokuk Union Depot. In 2017 the central tower was raised to its full height and tiled (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39744&hilit=keokuk+union+depot). The roofing of both the upriver and downriver ends of the Depot is to be completed this fall.

In the first photo we see tiling going up on the bluff side of the upriver (waiting room) end. The second photo shows roof repairs under way on the downriver (express room) end after tearoff of the deteriorated asphalt shingles. The upriver end did not require the same plywood overlay after tearoff, but the roof boards on the downriver end were damaged and tiles could not be adequately attached to them, so an overlay was required.

Richard -

Good to see that work is once again going forward. In one of the other threads on the Keokuk depot, there was some talk of glass windows being installed in the dormers of the central tower. Did that ever get done?

Les

Yes, Les, thanks for the reminder. That was completed in July. Here are two views of the trackside window. The opening on both track and bluff sides was originally (1891) supposed to hold a clock, but no clock was ever installed.

Roof tiling is progressing over the waiting room (upriver) end of the Depot. This was the view 9-26-2017.

More views taken today by Depot treasurer Sandra Seabold show further progress on both the upriver and downriver ends of the Depot.

Congratulations on your progress, the station is looking great. It is a quite ornate station for its relatively small size.

The Depot was built in 1891 by the five railroads then serving Keokuk, which formed the Keokuk Union Depot Company. The structure is not really that small. The upriver end is a large waiting room and ticket office. The central tower has two floors, originally a baggage room at ground level and the operator's office on the second floor. The downriver end consists of three separate express company rooms and the boiler room. For a small Midwestern city like Keokuk, the structure is of fairly good size. The cost of restoring the tile roof and the eaves, including rebuilding the peak of the central tower (truncated around 1950), will amount to about $1,250,000.00. For more information see some of our previous threads about the project:
http://www.rypn.org//forums/viewtopic.p ... ot#p236695
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39744&p=252359&hilit=keokuk+union+depot#p252359