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The late city historian Alan Frank spearheaded the restoration of the Livermore Railroad Depot and its 2017 relocation from South L Street to 2500 Railroad Ave. Now, a new meeting room at the depot bears his name.
The Rotary Club of Livermore, the Livermore Valley Rotary Club and the Rotarian Foundation of Livermore unveiled the Alan Frank Community Room at a ceremony last week. The 40-person furnished meeting space features a kitchenette and bathroom and is intended to be a low-cost meeting space for nonprofits. The room can be booked through the Livermore Area Recreation and Park District.
“The room is a fitting way to honor Alan’s life and his many years of service to our community,” Rotarian Foundation of Livermore President Marc Roberts said in a statement.
Roberts called Frank a “Renaissance man,” noting he worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was active in the Livermore Heritage Guild and Rotary. He was also a photographer who performed with local orchestras and was a founding member of Livermore Valley Opera and a member of the Livermore-Amador Symphony board. Frank authored several books on local railroads and history, including “Depot,” “Parallel Paths” and “Livermore: Frontier to City.”
He died in July 2025 at the age of 80.
The Livermore City Council recognized Frank’s contributions to the community and approved the meeting room’s name in February.
Southern Pacific originally built and used the depot as a ticketing office for its adjacent railway, but a private buyer purchased the building in 1974 to turn into a restaurant. The tracks were removed two years later, according to a January 2017 staff report prepared by Livermore city engineer Cheri Sheets.
The property changed hands several times, serving as a realty service and a dance studio before it was purchased by the city in 2007.
About a decade later, the planning commission approved the building’s rehabilitation and its relocation to the Livermore Transit Center on Railroad Avenue, where the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority uses a portion of the building for ticket sales.
Construction began on the meeting room last year. After Frank died, Roberts became the project manager. An upstairs unit, previously used as a station residence, has not been renovated yet.
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