When restoring a historic railroad depot and discovering a very historical and extremely rare intact piece of history you would assume one would probably display such an artifact. But not the folks who are in charge of restoring the Montpelier Train Depot they riped it out to install a bathroom. This rare artifact was a early 1800's Otis manually powered elevator. It is probably safe to say there are more operating steam locomotives in America than elevators like this.

Which "Montpelier" is this?

Montpelier Station, VA

http://montpelier.org/blog/?tag=train-depot

The depot was restored & converted to a post office and in doing so it was decided to install a bathroom on the first floor in the area where the elevator was.

Scroll down thru the blog, the changes and discussion about the elevator and photo documentation is included.

Virginia?

http://montpelier.org/blog/?tag=train-depot

Yes, the station blog cited by Brother Lyndall above confirms the removal of AN elevator.......

Quote from the website:
"The freight room of the Depot features an intact Otis freight elevator. The elevator was installed to transfer freight from the basement up to the main freight room when the railroad’s grade was lowered dramatically in circa 1915. Instead of removing the elevator we are lowering it down to the basement, fixing it in place and preserving it to maintain evidence of how the building functioned when it was still used as a depot. The elevator enclosure on the first floor will also be retained and converted into a bathroom for the Post Office."
_____

Certainly unique and interesting.

How about this post from November 2008:



It sounds like they are at least aware of the importance of the elevator to the depot's history and have saved at least part of the mechanism. It is always a tough call when changes have to be made to adapt a structure to modern requirements. Without knowing the specifics it does seem too bad but I know from first-hand experience that historic preservation can often require a lot of compromises especially when limited funding collides with permit and other legal stipulations for things such as restrooms, fire supression, and ADA.

--Richard

Sounds like some government mandated BS to me.

This is the one on the SR in Va -- the location was used for many years for runbys on SR and later NS steam trips out of Washington, DC.

I haven't been there for a long time and didn't realized it had been repainted.

It's too bad so many people post messages on this forum about a restoration project and assume everyone who reads it will know what city and state it's in.

Bob H

I don't see a problem. They need a bathroom. This elevator is not going to be used again (safety, maintenance, function). The elevator is still there for display purposes. The depot is loved and freshly painted.

I have the same sense of loss for all of you who rip out steam heat, signal lines, and belt driven lighting systems, but you all have needs too.

Amen to the suggestion to identify towns or other locations with the name (or at least the two-letter USPS code) for the state. Our country has several Springfields, Lincolns, Washingtons, etc. I grew up in Monrovia CA, and on a trip to New England, detoured to to small town of Monrovia, IN to visit the post office. It's also helpful to mention the nearest large city or well-known landmark to make the location clear. e.g. Perris, CA about 15 miles southeast of Riverside.
(full disclosure: my father was a postal clerk, back in the pre-ZIP-code days)

I'll second Bob's suggestion to note a nearby large city.

In California there are several duplicate place names. There are two Glendales, both of which had rail service, possibly three Cloverdales, and the 1960 Winter Olympics were held at the Squaw Valley which does NOT have the Post Office of that name.

How is this a "failure?"

I seem to recall, in another good thread on RYPN that there was a discussion over the differences between "adaptive re-use" and "restoration." The Montpelier, VA train station is a good example of adaptive re-use as a Post Office. Adaptive re-use and restoration have different goals and as a result, one may not be happy with the outcome of a re-use project.

If failure to keep the elevator intact and functioning is a "failure" what about a failure to restore the ticket/operators office authentically? Is it a failure if there isn't a desk, telegraph set, rr phone set, stack of old offical guides, swivel chair and a Remingon-Rand typewriter that only types in all caps all displayed?

Where do we stop? Do we just reject indoor plumbing and build a replica SRR style two-hole outhouse out back, complete with authentic lime and a Sears catalog in each stall?

The downtown St. Louis library is in the middle of a long and extensive restoration/rehabilitation project. Some parts of the building are being adaptively re-used. For example, one of the new features when the building re-opens is an auditorium in the old coal bin. (must have been a big coal bin). Is it similarly a failure that they did not preserve the coal bin as such?

David M. Wilkins
St. Louis 8 Mo

Agreed, David! And like SO many others, there could also be no depot left to adaptively re-use!

Stephen

I in no way see this as failure...

The depot survives, sitting along the track. It is used, not as a depot, but as a post office... there is no need for a depot, if a new use with facilities to support that new use was not found, the building at best would be abandoned, at worse, dismantled.

The elevator is a minor feature. The elevator car has been preserved in the original shaft, but not operating. Bathrooms, to support the new use as a post office, have been installed in the unused portion of the elevator shaft....

As a west coast guy, I have visited the depot 3 times in the last 10 years, as I visit Monpelier to see the ongoing restoration of the Madison Home. The depot, the Madison Home, and the general store? (I believe no longer used since the new visitors' center was built on site) across the tracks from the home have all been used collectively as a wonderful preserved landscape

As someone managing and currently overseeing significant work on a historic building (with an elevator) among the first steps was identification of "defining features" We are keeping our elevator, which is operable, but too small for wheel chairs, at a definable cost, with quarterly inspections, and an annual state inspection and licensing fee... If ours didn't have a use, I would abandon maintenance on it in a minute... I would simply leave the outer door open, the gate closed, and let people see it.

So, in this case, the elevator is not needed... the car is preserved in the elevator shaft in the basement, and the rest of the shaft has been re purposed...

Bringing this back to railroads... we are not going to be able to preserve every GG1, or steam engine, or your favorite diesel for future operation... we make preservation decisions... In part base on resources...

Randy

How many depots have been restored like this? Quite a few I would say. In fact in almost every state in the US there are operating steam locomotives, but something like this is next to imposable to find.