San Juan, the Little Depot That Could

The little depot with adobe walls two feet thick was built almost 100 years ago by workers for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and for many years it was the center of all important happenings in the quiet, dusty old town of San Juan Capistrano.

Today, the town has changed, but the depot is still the center of attention.

Now an Amtrak stop, it has become one of the busiest of its kind in the nation, serving more than a quarter of a million passengers a year.

After its construction in 1895, weddings, funerals and fiestas were held at the depot, little more than a stone’s throw from the ruins of the Old Mission Church. Some said the red tiles on the roof came from the mission, much of which was destroyed by the earthquake of 1812.

Over the years, wood-burning engines gave way to coal-burners and finally to diesel locomotives. And then, after World War II, the demand for rail service began to decline.

Santa Fe Railway officials, with permission from the California Public Utilities Commission, closed down their agency service at the depot in August of 1968. Just 713 tickets had been sold there during the previous 12 months.

“Things have changed now, though,” said Art Lloyd, a spokesman for Amtrak in San Francisco, which took over the Santa Fe passenger operation about two years later. “We have 528 Amtrak depots all across the nation, and San Juan ranks as the 17th-busiest.

“There were 252,107 passengers in and out of that little depot in 1986, up from 217,564 the year before.”

Fourteen trains a day running between Los Angeles and San Diego, seven northbound and seven southbound, stop there.

Lloyd said the travelers are a combination of commuters, tourists and “just plain shoppers, all of whom are trying to avoid congestion and other problems on the freeways.”

The San Juan depot still does not have a ticket agent, he said, but there is a travel agency booth there--or tickets may be bought from train conductors or by mail from Amtrak.

Now, the city is buying the depot, along with its restaurant and other amenities added by Jim and Pete Tyson in 1975. They replaced the original roof tiles, which were cracked and leaking, and they sandblasted the old whitewash paint to expose the elegant brickwork of the arches.

The price to the city is a little more than $1 million. According to Pat Davis of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which is overseeing a widespread downtown upgrading program, the deal will close Sept. 1.

“There was no escrow, per se, only an informal waiting period, since the agreement was reached late in July, to see if any claimants to portions of the property might show up,” she said.

The city is to pay the Santa Fe Railway $265,000 for the 800-by-70-foot strip of land along the tracks on which the depot and adjoining structures lie and another $450,000 to clear up a loan from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Jim Tyson said he and his brother, who operate as the Eureka and Eel River Railroad Co., will receive approximately $310,000 for their business operation and equipment.

“We’re getting out of the restaurant business simply because we’re tired of it,” he said. “It’s a 24-hour-a-day grind.”

The brothers have agreed to run the restaurant and bar business for $5,000 a month until the city finds another operator.

The city plans to build two new parking garages, one containing 132 spaces on two levels on the existing parking lot and the other across nearby Verdugo Street. The second one, with 410 spaces, will be part of an $18 million Franciscan Plaza and will be planned as an element of the downtown rejuvenation project, Davis said.

Money for the depot property purchase will come from the 1987-88 redevelopment agency budget.