Company refurbishing former Santa Fe depot
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

Used for years as the office of the Lampasas County Chamber of Commerce, the train depot is undergoing a facelift to accommodate the new owners plans.

Richard Hardin hopes the old Santa Fe Depot is on its way back to health.

Most ongoing work at the former railroad station and onetime Lampasas County Chamber of Commerce building focuses on protecting the facility while trying to maintain a historic look, said Hardin, stockholder in Hardin Interests Inc., which owns the property.

"Really all we're doing is weatherproofing, restoring, et cetera," he said.

Hardin Interests, which has done many historical renovations in the Austin area, replaced wood in the depot's roof, which had been leaking for several years.

"That was a fairly substantial undertaking," Hardin said.

Now, workers are repairing the back portion of the building, originally an open-air freight platform when the Santa Fe Syndicate began using the depot in 1904. A wooden covering was added later, Hardin said, and materials had deteriorated by the time Hardin Interests purchased the property.

"There was lots of rotten lumber, especially piers and floor joists," he said.

Hardin doesn't anticipate removing the covering completely, though, as such a significant change would require Texas Historical Commission approval and would subject the renovators to numerous statemandated procedures.

In addition, because of a water break on adjacent city property, workers have excavated on the west side of the depot to fix plumbing lines.

Probably the biggest exterior change renovators would make is to add a small parking lot, Hardin said. He hopes to use brick rather than asphalt to match the look of the old depot.

Interior work will accentuate the historical character of the former depot, Hardin said. Crews have removed sheetrock in the walls to reveal the original brick.

This development not only eliminates "poor-grade" two-byfour additions, Hardin said, but will return the depot to its 1904 look. Most additions appear to have been made between the 1940s and 1970s, he added.

"It's really just kind of getting back to how it was (in 1904)," he said of restoration efforts. "We're really trying to touch it lightly."

The company does not plan to depart from the original design of the century-old building, but workers will take away materials added later -- like tile on the floor, Hardin explained. Made of scored concrete, the floor was intended for display, he said.

"It wasn't meant to have tile, and it certainly wasn't meant to have carpet."

Hardin does not anticipate major floor plan changes, and he said discussion continues about how to use the building once renovation ends.

The primary updates to the interior will include a possible "wet bar" kitchen near the front of the building and bathroom conversion to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Any additions Hardin Interests makes will look historically "sympathetic," he said, but not so similar to the century-old style and materials as to keep viewers from distinguishing the additions from the originals.

Although work continues, Hardin said he does not yet know when the building will re-open.

"It's hard to budget or put a time frame on a historical renovation."