Feb. 27—When the Southern Pacific railway station was built at Baker and Sumner streets in the late-1880s, America was well into a period that would later become known as the Gilded Age, a time of rapid economic growth and complex social problems, ostentatious wealth and abject poverty.
About 133 years later, the building's original Richardsonian Romanesque brick architecture has been repeatedly altered, remodeled and plastered over until it has become nearly unrecognizable from what it once was.
The old depot last saw passenger service in 1971, and the station that had once boasted a great restaurant on the ground floor and overnight lodging upstairs slowly became a shadow of its former self.
Architectural preservationists and the city of Bakersfield are concerned that the historic station — now owned by Union Pacific — is in danger of being demolished.
But Bakersfield City Councilman Andrae Gonzales, whose Ward 2 includes the depot and its surrounding business district, has vowed to prevent that from happening — as have groups of local preservationists, supporters and boosters of the city's downtown and Old Town corridors, and others who believe that the depot is a valuable part of the city's historical and cultural heritage.
Even Jean-Guy Dube, an architectural historian, author and lecturer in Santa Barbara, is arguing for the building's preservation. Dube has been researching Southern Pacific depots since 1983, and is a member of the Southern Pacific Historical Technical Society.
"This is a rare instance where this building could be saved through a community effort and coordination between the Union Pacific Railroad, which now owns the depot, and the city of Bakersfield, which is temporarily leasing the depot, hoping to renovate," Dube said.
It's an opportunity for the people of Bakersfield to step forward, possibly with help from state or federal grants, to make the abandoned depot a showplace.
"With proper security, this could be a real draw for revitalizing this part of Bakersfield," Dube said.
On a recent tour of the station organized by Gonzales and led by Dube and longtime architectural preservationist Stephen Montgomery, visitors got a rare look at the inside of the depot.
Montgomery said the value of the depot goes much deeper than dollars and cents.
"In 1941, they did a remodel to try to make it look more like the Mission Revival style," Montgomery said. "It's part of the mistaken notion that buildings need to be remodeled."
The depot has actually undergone multiple changes over the decades since its creation, circa 1889 — making it more than half as old as the nation itself.
But all that remodeling, all that stucco coating on the outside, means it would be difficult — and expensive — to return the depot to its original architectural style, Montgomery said.
But even a purist like Montgomery acknowledges some of the remodels over the 133-year life of the station were necessary.
"It originally had segregated waiting rooms for men and women," he said of cultural norms that, over the years, became outdated.
Heather Laganelli, owner of Locale Farm To Table restaurant and a board member with the Hub of Bakersfield, said members of the nonprofit's board are passionate about preserving the historic depot.
"We had a board meeting a while back and we have been on the train to save Sumner Station for a while now, and we just don't want to see it go away," she said. "It would be awesome to bring some life to this corner."
Jeff Johnson, a business consultant who volunteers as a member of the Save the Sumner Station Working Group, also joined the tour.
"We're setting up an account for people who want to get involved in saving the depot," he said. "A lot of people in Bakersfield have wanted to do something, but haven't known how to get involved."
Councilman Gonzales said he believes the depot can again become an economic driver in Old Town Kern.
"The reason I know that is because we've seen it in so many other communities," he said. "There are examples of communities who cared enough to invest in their historic buildings and not just rip 'em down and tear 'em apart — but to really invest in their buildings. And they've been rewarded for it."
Many on the tour were surprised to learn that the depot was built by the Southern Pacific, as not only a passenger station, but also as a combination depot and hotel.
The first floor of the hotel portion of the building housed a dining room and a lunch counter, and had kitchen facilities, a pantry and more, Dube said. The second floor above the restaurant offered hotel rooms where guests could stay in relative comfort.
The dining establishment was operated by J.H. Tolfree, who founded other eating houses along the Southern Pacific line — including at depots in Saugus and Mojave — until his untimely death in January 1897 at the hotel in Mojave, just months after his wife took her own life at the same establishment.
After Tolfree died, the east wing of the depot was converted to offices for the railroad.
"The passenger portion of the depot had separate waiting rooms for the ladies and the gentlemen," Dube said. "As originally built, it was one story."
In 1894, a second floor was added to the passenger wing for train dispatchers and other employees.
"Looking at the depot today, of course it's undergone a dramatic transformation," Dube said. "The railroad, beginning in the 1920s and '30s, started a campaign of modernizing their older wooden and brick depots."
That usually meant stripping off all the Victorian detailing to streamline their appearance. That happened in Bakersfield in 1941, when original turrets and columns were removed and stucco was used to cover the depot's brick construction.
A similar remodel was done at the old Security Trust Bank at 18th Street and Chester Avenue in Bakersfield's downtown. That historic building, which also was slated for demolition, was ultimately saved, its stucco coating removed. It now operates as The 18hundred restaurant.
Despite the railroad's determination to smooth out and erase the depot's Gilded Age history, many details remain, Dube said. For example, much of the original open arcade around the passenger portion of the depot is still in evidence.
"It's dramatically transformed," Dube said of the depot, "although you can still feel that open space" people experienced as they waited under the shaded arcade outside.
As two groups of visitors were led through the tour of the depot — Union Pacific has vacated the old building to take up residency at its new communication center — they were met with an interior that no longer resembles the train station of yesteryear.
There are only a few depots left that were built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, Dube said. Bakersfield's depot is an example that should not be lost.
"A lot of depots have seen adaptive reuse in their lifetimes," he said.
They've been turned into restaurants, business offices, brewhouses, business incubators and more.
"It is certainly salvageable," he said of the depot. "In an ideal world, it would be wonderful to return it back to its original brick Richardsonian Romanesque appearance, which would enhance its historical value, not only for the community of Bakersfield but for this region of California as well — because there's not a lot of these surviving large, brick Richardsonian buildings anymore."
"Heritage tourism," Dube said, has the potential to bring additional visitors into the community.
"A depot is the perfect example of how you can use heritage tourism to bring tourism and an economy back to a downtown that has seen hard times."
Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.
