The clock is ticking on Stafford’s 113-year-old depot.
Town and state preservationists want to save the building on the north end of town and turn it into a regional rail museum with a destination restaurant. Meanwhile, BNSF Railway officials appear ready to demolish it.
The end of the line hasn’t arrived for the depot yet. But it certainly appears imminent.
At the end of January, Zak Andersen, chief of staff and vice president, communications, for BNSF sent a letter to Greg Kite, a Wichita attorney and historic preservationist, telling him the company will not donate the Stafford depot to the city of Stafford.
The letter indicated the railroad would retain ownership of the depot to protect future growth opportunities and keep the area safe.
Officials with BNSF had said in the past the town’s depot was a liability. Inspections revealed heavy termite damage and other issues with structural integrity.
Andersen’s letter indicated that the railroad had requested a plan for fencing and accessing the property to ensure safety if the depot were opened to the public. But while the railroad received photographs of fences “around Kansas depots” and proof of available funding, the official stated that it never received actual plans for the depot with estimated costs and timelines.
“Not every structure can be preserved, and unfortunately, that is the case for the Stafford Depot,” Andersen wrote.
During the seven years Kite has been involved in negotiations for the depot, he says the railroad has asked for two things: a plan for a fence and proof of funds for a fence. He says he’s provided those.
Kite was hoping for more – mostly because of the historic railroading past that Stafford shares with much of Kansas.
Two railroads arrived in Stafford in the late 1880s, the Chicago, Kansas and Western Railroad, which would be absorbed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the Denver, Memphis and Atlantic Railway, which became part of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Neither of those acquiring lines survive today. Through a merger, the Santa Fe is now the BNSF. The Missouri Pacific was bought out by the Union Pacific Railroad.
The Missouri Pacific maintained a depot on the south side of Stafford but it was demolished in the 1980s.
In 1911, when the Santa Fe built its depot in Stafford, the town had a population approaching 2,000. The depot was expansive and done in the Mission Revival similar to many other stations the rail line was building. That architectural style, sometimes mixed with American Craftsman elements, was also called “the county seat style.” (Interesting, because Stafford is not a county seat.)
Over the nearly 14 decades since, Stafford County residents have been able to lie in bed at night with train whistles and the heavy metallic sound of steel wheels on rails lulling them to sleep.
Those sounds may also be the first to wake them.
Freight trains still rumble through the county, sometimes carrying impressive Spirit AeroSystems airliner fuselages made in Wichita and headed to Boeing’s Seattle plant, or hauling grain harvested by local farmers headed to mills and ports far away.
During the 19th century, the success of a Kansas town often depended on a railroad such as the Santa Fe linking residents to the rest of the nation.
Now, some in Stafford worry that the future of their 960-person town may once again depend on a railroad. Saving the depot, they say, could give the community a chance to create a tourist attraction that could pull in visitors.
A long history
Passenger service stopped at the Stafford depot nearly half a century ago. After that, the building was used as a railroad storage facility. It’s been vacant for years.
In preservation circles, when a building sits empty for long periods of time, continuing to deteriorate, that’s called demolition by neglect, and it has added urgency to preservationists’ efforts to change minds within BNSF’s corporate offices.
“I remember in school we would take train trips to Hutchinson and tour. But my dad (Frederic Moore) always talked about riding the train to Kansas City with my great grandmother (Sarah Henderson) and she would buy things in Kansas City,” says Clare Moore, age 74, a central Kansas real estate agent who grew up on a farm near Stafford and now lives in Hesston.
Clare Moore started working more than 20 years ago on a project to save the Stafford Depot.
He has been preserving buildings since the mid-1970s and was instrumental in helping save Wichita’s L.W. Clapp house, as well as houses in Stafford, by getting them placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
At the turn of the 20th century, Kansas boasted nearly 1,850 depots. Now fewer than 200 of the iconic buildings remain, according to the Kansas State Historical Society.
The buildings were once bustling community landmarks. They would house Western Union telegraph offices and Railway Express Agency package delivery facilities. Platforms would be crowded with outgoing and incoming freight. On lines such as Stafford’s, where there was regular passenger service, depots greeted arriving travelers and served as an embarkation point for journeys near and far. Communities that had rail service tended to prosper.
Stafford’s depot was built in 1911. The Santa Fe Railroad constructed it in the Mission Revival style, which is also sometimes called the “county seat style.” That choice could be a reflection of the station’s relative importance at the time. Credit: Jeff Tuttle 
Locks and signs warn against tresspassing at the Stafford depot. Passenger service stopped there nearly a half-century ago and the building has been vacant for years. Credit: Jeff Tuttle 
BNSF has characterized the depot as a liability in the past. Inspections revealed termite damage and structural issues. Credit: Jeff Tuttle
A corporation’s concern
This isn’t the first time BNSF has said no to Stafford.
In 2016, there was a large-scale effort by local residents and state preservationists to save the depot. At that time, Kite, president of the Historic Preservation Alliance (HPA) based in Wichita, joined the efforts to save the building.
Kite and the alliance are best known for obtaining preservation grants to save the historic “Home on the Range” cabin in Smith County, where Brewster Higley penned the lyrics for what became the Kansas state song.
He and others in the group were instrumental in saving many of the artifacts from Wichita’s Joyland Amusement Park – such as a 1927 caboose now stored in a Wichita warehouse – and led the efforts in tracking down and prosecuting the person who stole the amusement park’s Louie the Clown display.
Plans for demolition of the Stafford Depot began in 2016 when employees contracted by BNSF removed the depot’s windows as well as asbestos, once a common building material that has been found to cause lung disease.
There was a last-minute e-mail campaign to save the depot. Appeals were made to Warren Buffett, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate that bought BNSF in 2010.
In a letter to Buffett, Kite wrote:
“I know you grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and I believe, like us, you have strong midwestern values. So, I am appealing to those strong midwestern values.”
Although Buffett didn’t directly respond, there were communications, verbal and email, back and forth between railroad officials and preservationists indicating the depot would be donated to Stafford.
“My email to Mr. Buffett ended up on the corner of the desk of Carl Ice, the president and CEO of BNSF at the time,” Kite says.
In fact, an email from Andy Williams, BNSF’s director of regional public affairs, to Kite dated Jan. 10, 2019 said: “I believe we may be ready to start the official disposition process.”
But the donation never happened.
Then last spring, a significant turn in the nature of the discussions among Stafford, BNSF and Kite’s group took place. On April 24, Kite received an email from Stafford requesting an update on the depot. Kite says he was told that there had been a request from BNSF to demolish the building.
Since then, efforts to have the depot donated have been denied.
Wishing for a Guardian angel
Locals have not given up hope for saving the depot, but their options are limited.
“They (BNSF) are like a sovereign nation,” says Stafford Mayor Don Hardin. “They can do whatever they want to do … but if there is something that can be done – if we can keep knocking on doors and sending emails – whatever we need to do, we will.”
Although no date is known for the depot’s demolition, preservationists believe the situation is dire.
“There are always a number of options and alternatives that HPA can undertake – as we have before – and utilize our preservation stature in disagreeing with entities that want to demolish historic structures,” Kite says. “I’m just wishing there was some Hail Mary, guardian angel that would come forward and have some clout for them to reconsider and do the right thing.”
Moore says the case reminds him of the late Kathlien Edmiston, a 1933 graduate of the University of Wichita who went on to serve on the university’s board of regents and board of trustees.
“She was a philanthropist and promoter of Wichita State,” Moore says.
In 1973, Edmiston led efforts to save the iconic pillars of the university’s original Carnegie Morrison Library. The building, which was completed in 1909 when the school was Fairmount College, was badly damaged in a fire in 1964. The remains of the building and its pillars sat for a decade until the construction of the Ulrich Museum was about to begin at the site.
Edmiston launched an effort to save three of the columns – now relocated near 17th and Fairmount streets on WSU’s campus.
“At some point when the bulldozer shows up, we can do what she did,” Moore says. “She sat on the steps of the building that was about to be razed until she could get someone to say they would save the pillars of the building. The pillars survived. She would not leave until she was guaranteed they would be saved.”
Remembering Herington
Sometimes there can be a disconnect between communities, depots and the railroad companies that own them, says Dave Webb, a Kansas historian who lives in a Santa Fe depot he moved from Ashland to his family’s farm near Protection.
“Call it ownership,” Webb says. “Sometimes a depot is the oldest building in town. Residents feel ownership even though they may have never owned it.
“Unfortunately to the railroad, the depot is just an empty building they pay tax on. They are concerned about public safety near it, and it may be just easier to get rid of it.”
Webb says his depot is a wood frame building similar to those used in many towns – quick to put up and intended for temporary use.
“They were often replaced with permanent depots often made of brick or stone,” Webb says. “A century later, ironically, those (wood buildings) are the ones most saved because they can easily be moved off site. Permanent depots are often the ones destroyed because they can’t be moved.”
But when residents see a building that’s been part of their town’s heritage for more than a century, they begin to see it as theirs too.
Such was the case of the Rock Island depot in Herington, built in 1887.
In the mid-1980s, local residents talked about saving the vacant depot building but no group was organized to press the case. The building had been listed on the Kansas Register of Historic Places and was in the process of being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Cotton Belt railroad, then the owner, opposed the national listing, effectively blocking it. Permission for placement on the national register is required by the owner.
At 5:40 a.m. on March 23, 1988 – while most residents were still in their beds – the century-old two-story gothic limestone depot was demolished by a private contractor on orders from the railroad. Using an industrial backhoe, it took less than an hour to reduce it to rubble.
The demolition became a public relations nightmare for the railroad. Newspapers across the state ran articles; Kansans were outraged.
As detailed in the Kansas Preservation newsletter from May-June 1988, railroad officials and their contractor didn’t even apply for the $5 permit Herington required for demolition projects.
Virginia Brunner, the curator of the Tri-County Historical Society, told The Wichita Eagle-Beacon. “They robbed future generations. They robbed the whole town.”
The Herington demolition prompted then-Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan to urge the Legislature to amend state preservation law, providing penalties for persons and entities that failed to apply for and obtain the necessary permits before destroying historic properties or their environs.
The legislature quickly approved a bill, and it was signed into law by Gov. Mike Hayden on May 13,1988.
Patrick Zollner, executive director of the Kansas State Historical Society, said that in recent years, fewer depots have been placed on the state and national registers. That’s partly because state and federal transportation enhancement grants for historic transportation buildings are not as plentiful as they once were.
“There was a time when people were actively looking for the transportation enhancement grants,” Zollner says. “Strong City was one of those, Marion and Marysville.”
There are resources that communities can access to save such buildings, Zollner says. But first, communities such as Stafford need to acquire the building.
“These depots are treasures, community landmarks and icons. They are still the centers of the community and are now used in a variety of different uses between museums, visitor centers. Our (historic preservation) programs – between the tax credits and grants – can help with that.”
Despite its present condition, Stafford’s mayor sees the depot as a potential way to help keep the town vibrant.
Like many small towns in Kansas, Stafford struggles to bring tourism dollars into the community, not to mention keeping residents’ dollars within the city limits.
If the city can manage to obtain the depot and find funding to restore it, Moore’s idea is to turn it into a combination railroad museum with a railroad-themed restaurant.
“We are close to Pratt, close to Great Bend and Hutchinson,” Hardin says. “It is too easy for people (in Stafford) to go north, south or east to shop and to the restaurants in those towns.
“So anything we can do to keep that money in our little communities is helpful to the economic base and brings in sales tax revenue.”
As long as the Stafford Depot still stands, local and state preservationists remain hopeful.
“But first, we need the building,” Zollner says. “Start with this hardcore fact – there is limited manpower hours and money to go around.
“Get the building first.”
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