Don’t destroy distinctive features of Modesto’s historic downtown depot
Making Modesto’s downtown bus and train station more safe and appealing is a must in the city’s ongoing drive to boost downtown, the heart of our city.
Preserving the depot’s historic grace also is important.
We can and must do both.
Unfortunately, a plan to rehab the 104-year-old station doesn’t seem to recognize that. The plan floated by the city’s transit division puts improved security before all else, while sacrificing some of the venerable building’s architectural allure.
Specifically, the $5 million renovation plan calls for gutting the inside, removing ancient craftsmen benches and other woodwork evoking a bygone era, when people relied more on passenger rail and less on cars. And the depot’s most eye-catching exterior feature — a series of arches, in keeping with the station’s Mission Revival theme — would be filled in with doors and windows.
Alarmed at the idea of losing or obscuring these features, some people have established a website urging the city to change the plan. See savemodestosdepot.wordpress.com.
The plan is at once “wonderful and terrible,” the site says. Wonderful, because the old depot, despite its distinctive tile roof and cupolas, admittedly has become shabby. It needs some TLC before Modesto welcomes ACE, the train service that could whisk people to the Bay Area as soon as 2021, and later to Sacramento.
Yes, repainting the station’s icky pink stucco exterior to classic white would be less offensive to the eyes. Yes, new lighting and signs and attractive pavers will be a welcome change. Upgrading restrooms and new LED boards with constantly updated route info all are desperately needed. So are new and more security cameras, which will help maintain order.
But the plan also is terrible if it means robbing Modesto of one more living link to the past.
The railroad, in a real sense, is responsible for making Modesto. Central Pacific laid out our familiar diagonal street grid when the city was founded in 1870.
Several of our downtown restaurants proudly display old-time pictures on their walls, providing diners with a look into downtown Modesto’s storied past. View a few and you’ll begin wondering where all the attractive old homes and buildings went.
“For some reason, Modesto was more ruthless than others in tearing down our heritage buildings,” said Bob Barzan, the Modesto Art Museum’s founder and architecture historian.
The ornate Victorian courthouse, the stately Hughson and Covell hotels, the art deco Shannon Lakewood Funeral Chapel — gone, among countless other beauties. All razed to make way for something else.
A few relics survived the purge of the 1970s through ‘90s, but not nearly enough for those who love historic buildings and their evocative beauty.
The Southern Pacific downtown depot, built in 1915, has managed to avoid the wrecking ball all these years. Although trains stopped bringing passengers in 1971 (Union Pacific freight trains still roll through), in 1993 the building became the anchor to the Modesto Transportation Center, a hub for city, county and Greyhound buses.
Soon, Altamont Commuter Express trains will bring thousands of riders through town, some of whom will get their first glimpse of Modesto from its historic depot, and later even more could arrive in high-speed rail cars. The downtown station literally will resume its place as an important gateway to Modesto. How nice if people’s first impression is a smart combination of past with present, memory with modern convenience, legacy with likability.
At a Monday meeting, Mayor Ted Brandvold seemed sympathetic to the pleas of many who advocated for design preservation. “But we’ve got to make it work, also,” he said. “We have to look to the future, as our transportation needs change.”
He’s right. The city must bring the depot up to standard, with more safety measures so everyone feels safe catching trains and buses.
The idea of reorienting the depot’s focus to its natural front — best viewed from Eighth Street, across the train tracks — is intriguing. Those multiple arched porticos in an open arcade are as becoming as they are historic. That’s the first thing disembarking riders will see.
Here is our point: Security and preserving our heritage are not mutually exclusive.
Let’s do both.
This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
