Dwight Young's piece in this months Preservation Magazine seems reasonably apropos to the discussion below concerning modern architectural intrusions into historic settings. Wagging the Dog: Is the proliferation of visitors centers making us miss the point?http://www.nationaltrust.org/Magazine/current/backpage.htm

Great article. Good tongue-in-cheek humor that makes a valid point. Thanks for sharing!

I always thought of "visitor centers" to be a code phrase for souvenir shops.But as for RR preservation, I think that a good display in a restored RR station would be more than enough for most tourists. Look at Strasburg, I think that's an excellent example of "not going over the top," while still providing the public what they're looking for with such an experience...

The Portola RR Museum plan I mentioned in the other thread does have a "visitor's center" in the plan. What the building actually will be is a display museum (for "small items" such as uniforms, lanterns, etc.), entry point and orientation center. There will also be galleries for displaying railroad photos, art, etc.Visitors would enter the Great Hall, which will feature real and replica examples of motive power and cars. These would be used to explain the physical technology of railroads and give them a context to understand what they are seeing. The Timeline Hall will display the small items I mentioned, taking the visitor on a walk through WP chronology and using these items, photos, models and images to illustrate the road's history. There will also be a resturant and gift shop.One nice thing our facility offers is the chance to physically seperate this visitor center from the main museum. It will be on the small bluff overlooking the museum. Visitors will be able to sit in a small ampitheater overlooking the museum and the valley with the river flowing through and then walk down in to the museum proper. The thinking is that they will understand what the see in the museum better once they have gotten this quick orientation into WP history and railroad history and technology.Eugene

Good article, but it overlooks the worst "center" ever in Washington: Union Station was converted into a big visitor's center in the 1970s, complete with a rectangular hole cut into the main floor nicknamed "the pit". Critics said that the visitor's center could be used as a swimming pool due to the leaky roof and other structural problems with the building at the time. "The pit" was removed, and the area below converted to a movie theatre, when the building was restored in the mid-1980s.Chris.

Folks,I volunteer at the Western railway Museum and we opened a new Visitor Center in 2001. It literally put a new face om the museum. It is a large 300 foot long building that acts as a billboard on State Highway 12 out in front.We are still getting comments like " I never knew you were here before" after all this time.Yes, there is a book store and a snack bar. but there is also the Library and Archives where I work and a bus size set of rest rooms. Wow!A visitor center is what you do with it! Our central hall can be converted into a dining room for evening events, days there are small displays and a cental place to do the ticketing.Also it ends the old question at rail museums," Where is the museum?"A substantial building was built at Seashore Trolley Museum some years ago and it too acted as a central activity center. It ended the "little boys playing with their toys" syndrome that so many rail museums face. They got a lot more memberships and we at WRM have seen the same thing.They cost a lot but you get a lot in return!Ted Miles

Ted Miles wrote:They cost a lot but you get a lot in return!Ted and all, I learned this many years ago at an ARM convention in Canada. The group scripmed and saved and built a small to medium sized structure, which included all of the things you mentioned. After the building was built, the visability of the museum in terms of what donors and other funding sources perceived was astonding.A "visitor center" does not have to be large. In fact many organizations go for the edifice, thinking that it will impress.For industial history preservation, a "visitor center" is a necessary evil as it is where you help the visitors understanding of the whys and the needs for preservation.J.