The Burlington Northern Depot is located in Chehalis, Washington. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1974. The site is located within the Chehalis Downtown Historic District and borders the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District, both NRHP-listed locations. , the station is home to the Lewis County Historical Society and Museum.
Chehalis, then known as Saundersville, attempted to create a train stop and station during the 1870s after the build of a Northern Pacific Railway line through the developing town in 1872. After community-wide petitions and actions, which included flagging down passing trains to stop, the town received an official train stop in 1874.
The first station, known as the Northern Pacific Depot, was constructed in 1890 near the downtown core. The station was used as a stopping point by President Benjamin Harrison the following year and Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, who spoke from the McKinley Stump. Though the station remained in operation and brought economic prosperity to the booming community, by the turn of the 20th century the depot was criticized for its appearance, lack of safety, space, and utility.
Northern Pacific constructed the Chehalis historic depot in 1912, located north of the old station. The brick depot is considered Mission Revival architecture and spans nearly a block, situated closely to the railroad tracks. The station is noted for its sectioned façade and gables. The structure once contained a passenger room, telegraph office, and a baggage and freight area. The waiting area was noted for its enameled brick detail and cove ceiling. A portion of the previous station was moved to the new site for use as a freight office. A dedication of the $30,000 train station was held in January 1913.
Most commonly known as the Burlington Northern Depot and in the present-day as the Lewis County Historical Museum, the location went by a variety of names over its lifetime as an operational train station. The Northern Pacific Depot was utilized as one of the first transport hubs in the United States to relocate Japanese-Americans during World War II.
In February 1973, Burlington Northern closed the depot, transferring operations and employees to the Centralia Union Depot. The railroad company initially ordered the historic Chehalis station to be demolished, but after two years of community and political protests hoping to use the depot as a museum, the site was leased to Lewis County in late-1975 for $1 per year. The building was renovated by the Lewis County Historical Society and several volunteers, officially opening as a county historical museum in September 1979.
Names and monikers The depot has been known under several names and monikers over its lifetime, including early titles such as the Chehalis Depot, Chehalis Train Depot, and the Chehalis Union Depot. The building was often named under the railroad company that operated the station, such as the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot, which was also the moniker of the first official station in the city. Locally the depot was simply referred to as the Chehalis railway station or as the Chehalis railroad depot.
The National Register of Historic Places nomination form refers to the site as the Chehalis Passenger Station and for a brief time after the depot was dedicated as the Lewis County Historical Museum in 1979, was given the moniker, Front Way Depot.
Background First Chehalis railroad stop A Northern Pacific Railway (NPR) bridge was completed at Pumphrey's Landing over the Cowlitz River by the fall of 1872, allowing the construction of a fully connected line between the Columbia River and Puget Sound areas. The portion of the NPR line through Chehalis, then known as Saundersville, was completed shortly thereafter. Land for a Chehalis depot was requested by Northern Pacific, but landowner Eliza Barrett Saunders, known as the matriarch of the city, refused to donate a portion of her claim. Barrett increased the price of the parcel and the company opted for a newly platted site at Newaukum Hill, in the town eventually known as Newaukum. The train tracks between the two communities amounted to a continuous wooden trestle spanning over wetlands though treks for farmers and travelers in the area was still difficult due to the terrain.
Despite the failure to have a depot immediately constructed in the town, Chehalis began earnestly requesting a train station in 1872 with an undaunted approach. A unanimous petition requesting a depot was signed by residents and hand delivered by prominent Chehalis businessmen Lewis A. Davis of Claquato, J.A. Long, and William West to the manager of the NPR line, John W. Sprague, who was residing in Kalama. Though Sprague denied the request, he sent the petition to NPR's headquarters and allowed the returning train to drop off the three representatives in Chehalis rather than in Newaukum.
Two stories exist as to the beginnings of a train stop in Chehalis. A local pioneer, John Alexander of Lintott-Alexander Park, offered a $20 gold coin to a conductor in exchange for a freight delivery directly to Chehalis. A separate story posits that an initiative led by businessmen and residents in the city began flagging down trains with regularity, an option at the time but unknown to the community. The flagging efforts began after a Chehalis man mentioned that trains were required to stop after being flagged. Flaggers were chosen and specifically used red bunting, holding shifts throughout the day to signal the trains to stop. This numerous constancy led to a regular train stop in Saundersville in 1874. In a continuing competition for the rail company's favor with local and regional communities, such as Claquato and South Bend, the city donated land to NPR for a promised railway turntable; the wheelhouse was never built.
Chehalis experienced growth and economic success quickly, recording monthly receipts by October 1885 totaling $2,020 with over in combined freight activity.
First Chehalis station Barrett eventually sold her landholdings near the tracks and Northern Pacific constructed a wood, "regulation depot" in 1890 in a pork processing warehouse. The structure was owned by West and fellow prominent Chehalin, John Dobson of John Dobson Park. A grain warehouse was built later, using funds gathered from company stock offered at $10 per share. Difficulties over the right-of-way remained into August 1890 as the railroad required several hundred feet of access on both sides of the tracks. Parcels were owned by numerous other people, which included large homes that needed to be moved. Estimates to complete the acquisitions reached as high as $25,000. Union Pacific built an extension of their line to the new station beginning in 1891.
Northern Pacific proposed the construction of a new station in 1897. The plans called for a one-story building south of the railroad crossing on Market Street containing an alcove, two waiting rooms, office spaces, and passenger and freight areas. Reports from other Washington communities warned Chehalis residents that the promise was more than likely to fail; despite procurement of materials and laborers, no new depot was built. The station was partially rebuilt beginning in mid-1897, finalized by September.
Due to injury concerns, the city attorney in February 1904 declared the train platform a "menace" and demanded the area be tiled. The issue was addressed the following month; the platform was lowered with a extension on the south end of the site. The project was expanded to include an enlargement of the building by on the south end, which included a larger baggage area. Additionally, the floors were lowered, as were all doors and windows, and a more convenient bay window ticket booth was installed. The known problem on the platform, which caused repeated falls off the raised area and was known simply as "the ditch", was boxed in. A city-wide paving of streets project begun in late 1907 led to the installation of cement sidewalks at the depot.
The station contained a Western Union telegraph office, a common means of communication of the time. Also common, NPR and Western Union delivered free messages and express mail under the Northern Express Company to the city's residents through means of hand delivery. The practice, considered a "poor one" and often employed a young boy, was meant to keep costs down for residents, though at the expense of a salaried position and deferred costs to residents via gratuity to the delivery person. Due to the advent of a nine-hour workday, railroad financial cutbacks, and the increase in the use of the telephone, the depot's reliance on telegraphy began to wane in 1908, with the station no longer accepting messages transmitted during the evening hours.
The population in Chehalis nearly tripled from 2,300 to 6,500 residents during the original station's lifetime. By 1907, economic success for the town was noted as the depot provided approximately $500,000 in business to Chehalis. The station generated the largest railroad revenue between Portland and Tacoma. However, local residents and officials had long felt the depot was too small, citing a narrow and dangerous platform and freight and passenger rooms much too small.
In 1908, the Chehalis Bee-Nugget newspaper declared the depot a "dump"; another editorial mentioned the location "inadequate" and "too small to accommodate" the growing freight and passenger traffic. A proposal to replace the depot with a brick passenger station was announced in August 1909 by Northern Pacific. Pressure for a new station continued with complaints citing the muddy walkways and water intrusions.
By January 1911, the grounds were in a state of disrepair. A large, "unsightly and unsanitary" mudhole north of the station was stated as "disgraceful", causing locals to use "profane language" while traversing through the business core, covering the district in mud as it was spread. The original depot was lambasted throughout the year in the local press for its appearance and lack of facility, considering it "just as bad" as the station in Centralia. The editors of The Centralia Weekly Chronicle wrote on April 28, 1911, that they hoped by a "lucky combination of flames" coupled with a fire department waylaid by an accident, that the train would suffer a final, necessary end. On May 2, the Northern Railroad Depot caught fire. Despite a fire horse that bolted, the crew put out the flames despite the wishes of the local press.
A new station to be constructed by Northern Pacific was announced again in September 1911. A part of the old station was moved on the morning of June 18, 1912 by flatcar to adjoin the new facilities as a freight room. The rail company continued to use the remaining sections of the old station as part of its stockyard, moving the facility a block south in January 1919. A local Carnation Milk plant began using the location to store fuel. The freight room, being the last remnant of the original depot, was demolished in 1964 under orders from the structure's owner at the time,Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The addition was considered too large to maintain, out of date, and contained amenities, such as bathrooms, that were not needed. A smaller freight office replacement was built across the street.
Notable events and incidents The depot welcomed President Benjamin Harrison on May 6, 1891, during a train stop visit in western Washington. Chehalis was his first stop and though cold and raining, a crowd gathered and reportedly "cheered lustily" for the president.