May 1, 2004
Community celebrates restored landmark
Lucy Schultze
Oxford Eagle
Staff Writer
Open and functional since this past fall, the restored Oxford Depot was
officially welcomed back into community life in an outdoor ceremony Friday
afternoon.
Inside, display cases told the story of its past through old photographs,
time-table pamphlets and railroad maps, as visitors wandered in through the old
freight doors.
"Isn't it wonderful?" said Sara Davidson, admiring the restored cedar-plank
floors. Some 30 years ago, in its sunlit rear room, the depot housed her
interior design studio.
"With the northern light coming in, it was such a pleasant space," she said.
And so it is once again, rescued from time's abuses by a $1 million renovation
undertaken in partnership by the University of Mississippi and the city of
Oxford.
Repurposed as a meeting space for the campus and community, the railroad depot
has hosted everything from academic conferences to wedding receptions since its
restoration was completed in September.
"What a delight it is today to see this 130-year-old landmark restored," UM
Chancellor Robert Khayat said at Friday's gathering.
"It was literally on the verge of collapse on the eve of this restoration. We're
so thankful it survives."
Piecing the past together
In an era when railroad travel was a town's main link to the world, the
Mississippi Central Railroad and later Illinois Central Railroad placed Oxford
on a line from the Gulf of Mexico to the Ohio River.
Built in 1872, the current Oxford Depot replaced a temporary, wood-frame shelter
which served the town while it recovered from the Civil War. The original depot,
built 20 years earlier, had been destroyed sometime during the war.
For the Oxford community, the depot was the gateway that welcomed students,
faculty and visitors to town. It was the site of tearful farewells and joyous
reunions, a place where people sometimes gathered to meet the train just because
nothing else was going on.
"The depot has been very much the center of life in this community," said Oxford
Mayor Richard Howorth, noting that the street numbers on Jackson Avenue begin at
the train station rather than the Square.
Stories about the depot are can be had from most everyone who's lived in Oxford
since before passenger service ended in 1941. But, as university historians and
archivists discovered, documents, photographs and other memorabilia are harder
to come by.
"What I found out was that Oxford's depot was pretty small actually," said
Jennifer Ford, who heads the university's Department Archives and Special
Collections.
"I'd call people asking for materials, and they'd tell me, 'Good luck.'"
In the end, Ford would travel around the state gathering items to help tell the
depot's story. Her search was aided by John McKendree of Oxford, and by Jack
Gurner Sr., Jack Gurner Jr. and Ernest Aune, all of Water Valley.
Living history
Among the most exciting discoveries for Ford was not a document at all, but an
80-year-old Batesville man who served as the Oxford Depot's last station
manager.
Standing outside his old workplace Friday, Floyd Barger barely recognized the
building.
"Nothing in there looks the same, just the brick wall - that's it," he said.
His family lived in a house the rail company owned nearby. Though passenger
service had long since ended, Barger tended the freight lines and operated the
telegraph machine from 1958-66.
Standing beside a pair of gravel walking paths that echo the long-gone tracks,
Barger pointed to the place where the old side track used to run, and to where a
tunnel once ran under the tracks. Though the depot's former life is just memory
now, its last manager says the new form suits it well.
"It looks real good," he said.
The depot renovation effort was spearheaded by Gloria Kellum,UM vice chancellor
for university relations.
Members of the renovation and planning committee included Ann Abadie, Davidson,
Lib Fortune, Paul Hale, Buddy Kahler, Bonnie Krause, Pat Lamar, Ed Meek, Laura
Pannell, Brian Reithel and Ken Wooten.