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Livermore’s historic train depot was moved early last Sunday morning to the city’s transit center, where it will be rehabilitated to federal historic standards, a consultant for the city said Monday.
The depot, which was built in 1872, was moved between midnight and 5 a.m. Sunday (July 16) from South L Street to 2500 Railroad Ave.
The $3.07 million construction project will rehabilitate the depot to the condition it was between 1892 and 1941 when it contributed greatly to the development of Livermore.
During that period, the depot was used to sell tickets mainly for the transportation of cattle and other agricultural goods, city consultant Rosy Ehlert said.
With the rehabilitation, the part of the depot used for selling tickets then will be used to sell tickets now for Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority buses and Altamont Corridor Express trains, which can take people from Stockton to San Jose.
The rehabilitated depot will also have displays, a waiting room, space for LATVA operations, a meeting room and second-floor office space.
Ehlert said construction is underway.
To move the depot, the building had to be cut in two because it was too long to move as one building.
Then it was brought down Railroad Avenue, where movers snaked through two traffic signals — because the building was higher than the signals — over a curb and under power lines that PG&E propped up, Ehlert said.
“It was quite a little production,” she said.
About 100 people came out to watch, according to Ehlert.
The depot in the recent past had many uses including a restaurant, real estate office and dance studio, and additions were made to the building to accommodate those uses.
Before the move, the additions were removed carefully, Ehlert said.
In 1973, the depot was closed and proposed for demolition, prompting the formation of the Livermore Heritage Guild, the city’s historical society, whose members had been seeing many historic buildings in Livermore being destroyed.
Then just 10 years ago, a neighbor of guild president Jeff Kaskey proposed moving the depot to Railroad Avenue because the railroad tracks there had no depot and the depot’s railroad tracks had been moved.
Kaskey, who’s also a member of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, said it was obviously a good idea.
He said guild members petitioned city officials to save the depot but the project once it’s said and done is a city one.
“We’re certainly very pleased,” Kaskey said on behalf of the guild. “Can’t wait to see it open as a train station.”
— Keith Burbank, Bay City News
