Fighting to Save a Train Depot, and a Bit of History

A century ago, a modest building on a sliver of land in North Hollywood served as a vital link for the San Fernando Valley with the outside world. In time it would help the Valley grow and prosper.

Today the boarded-up Southern Pacific train depot crouches anonymously on a weedy lot in the shadow of a massive new transit hub. Preservationists hope the drab wooden structure will once again become a link, but this time to the area’s cultural past, perhaps as a community center or a museum.

“This station is the key that built this whole area,” said Guy Weddington McCreary, head of a campaign to save the deteriorating but still sturdy depot.

“Rocks that built the Los Angeles harbor came through here. Many tons of fruit that were grown locally went all over the world from this spot,” he said as he surveyed the depot’s weathered face.

Built in 1895, the depot at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards rubs shoulders with the multihued, cavernous entrance of its kindred successor -- the busy North Hollywood subway stop on the Metro Red Line. It will soon also be flanked by a terminus of the Orange Line busway, now under construction.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority owns the depot and about five acres of choice property it sits on, which preservationists fear will be sold by the agency for development.

“It is one of Los Angeles’ very few original, intact train depots,” said Ken Bernstein, director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy. The station is also one of the oldest structures in the Valley.

The conservancy has lent its weight to efforts by McCreary’s group, the Save Lankershim Train Depot Committee, to get a commitment from the MTA to preserve and restore the building on its current site.

MTA officials say that despite a postponement, they plan to go forward with plans to restore the building.

“I think we are fully committed to that,” said Kevin Michel, MTA planning director for the Valley. The MTA and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency have set aside $1.2 million to revitalize the station. But the contractor hired by the redevelopment agency was “unable to go forward,” Michel said. The project will have to be put out to bid again, which he said could take several months.

Michelle Banks-Ordone, an assistant project manager for the redevelopment agency, said it was unclear whether the renovation could move forward soon. “We would hope so, but we don’t have the ability to make that happen,” she said, citing bureaucratic issues between the MTA and her agency over access to the site.

The delay makes preservationists skeptical that renovation will occur. They fear the plan will wither from neglect, or that the MTA will decide to relocate the depot, enabling the agency to cash in on the land.

“Once these old buildings are gone, you can’t bring them back,” said Barbara Freeman, a local artist and depot backer. “You can’t build a Disneyland version of the past.”

From 1999 to 2002, community groups seeking to save the depot met periodically with MTA representatives. “Everyone seemed to be in agreement,” McCreary said. “Now there seems to be a change of policy.”

Despite statements from the agency that the project will proceed, preservationists are especially worried because several months ago, a private builder approached the MTA with a proposal that called for removing the station. The agency board has taken no action on that plan.

“Our intent has not changed,” MTA spokesman Marc Littman said. “This is to be a historic site.”

The arrival of the railroad opened up the Valley for immigrants and commerce. McCreary, whose family came to North Hollywood in 1886, said the Bonner Fruit and Cannery Co. processed food in a factory near the depot for many years, sending its products to market by train.

“Lankershim peaches were famous all over the nation,” he said.

The depot ceased to be used as a train stop about 25 years ago, but trains continued to roll past it until about 10 years ago, said McCreary.

Some Valley residents believe a restored depot would be ideal as a community hall or as a museum. Bernstein said the Los Angeles Conservancy would not object to using some of the space for a restaurant or shops.

Richard Hilton, a board member of the depot preservation group, said cherishing relics of the past is as important as looking toward the future.

“It’s difficult for Angelenos to know where we came from,” he said. “This building represents our pioneers, the people who came before us.... We need to carry our history with us as we go forward.”