Next steps in restoration of the Rock Island Depot at Perry, Arkansas

(Jan. 15, 2022) – Plans are being considered to begin making additional repairs to the Rock Island Depot in Perry, Arkansas. As we enter the fifth year of the project, which initially was an effort to keep the historic structure from being torn down, difficult choices are being made about the best ways to move forward.

One year ago, on Jan. 15, 2021, we celebrated news from the National Park Service that an effort with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program (AHPP) to get the depot listed on the National Register of Historic Places was successful. That gave the project a new level of credibility and should be especially beneficial when applying for grants to help cover the cost of the restoration. 

But matching donations are typically required for grants, and an issue has been raised that would need to be resolved to apply for what seems like a logical grant from the AHPP. I’ll explain more about that further down. Those matters, along with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, have led to the project becoming somewhat stagnant. 

Since it has been more than a year since I last wrote a detailed update, I wanted to explain where things are at this point. The good news is that work done over the last few years seems to be effectively protecting the wooden building from any further deterioration. 

Since being moved to an adjacent city-owned lot along the rails, the ground and depot have been treated for termites. A new cinder block foundation was built at a height based on how high flood water from the Arkansas River rose in May 2019. Most importantly, the roof was replaced in August 2020, which included restoring the overhang on one side that had been cut off when the Little Rock & Western Railway built a locomotive servicing shop directly behind the building in 1984.

“It’s dry inside the depot,” said Buford Suffridge, president of the Perry County Historical & Genealogical Society, who has been overseeing the project. “It doesn’t seem like water is getting inside. The overhang protects it real well.”

We were hoping to host a fundraising event last year outside the depot or at the nearby former high school gymnasium, which was restored by one of the people involved in this project. The ongoing pandemic, with the delta variant causing a surge last summer and the omicron variant now setting new records for cases in the state, is keeping us from holding any in-person events.

“Every time we get to the point where I think we can hold a fundraiser, COVID rears its ugly head again,” Suffridge said. 

We know there are many people who would like to be able to look around inside the historic structure. The floors will need some work before it would be safe to hold an open house, but if we held a luncheon outside or nearby we could let a few people in at a time. 

The building is empty, but fascinating with the two waiting rooms on each side of the office and the freight room, which is covered with graffiti from former Rock Island employees who wrote their names and dates on the walls and ceiling. The office still has the Western Union circuit boxes and the controls for the semaphore signal that is in storage and will one day again stand outside the projecting telegrapher’s booth.

Walking through, people would be able to envision the plan to turn the depot into a community meeting space and museum to tell the history of the community and the Rock Island Railroad.

For now, Suffridge is looking at what immediate repairs could be made to the outside of the depot using funds available in an account dedicated to the project. 

FUNDRAISING 

We’re extremely grateful to the many people who have made donations to help us get to this point. 113 donations have been received through an online Go Fund Me campaign started in May 2018, recently surpassing our original goal of $9,000. The nonprofit has also received checks, while in-kind donations have been made for labor and supplies.

Much of that money was spent hiring a house moving company and paying the thousands of dollars in insurance coverage that was required by the Little Rock & Western’s parent company for movers to access the property.

Rachel Patton with Preserve Arkansas, a group that advocates for saving historic structures, has been guiding us since the start of the project. She connected me with Suffridge in 2017 after learning that the Little Rock & Western planned to demolish the depot to expand its locomotive servicing shop which was directly behind the depot. 

In April 2019, she helped us get a nearly $10,000 grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Division of Rural Services with the goal of helping to create a community meeting space inside the depot.

Now that it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, she has suggested applying for a grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. It would require us to raise an additional $10,000 to, if approved, receive $20,000 in grant funding. That would go a long way toward covering the cost of repairs recommended by architect Gary Clements who went through the depot with Suffridge and Patton in October 2020. 

One issue that would complicate applying for that grant is that we’ve learned the town of Perry holds a quitclaim deed to the property the depot is now on. The AHPP requires a warranty deed in order to donate an easement with grants of more than $10,000. I understand that could be resolved but would require hiring an attorney and conducting a property survey. That could easily cost about $5,000.

Suffridge is frustrated because, like the insurance coverage required by the railroad to move the building, it would be a large sum of money not going into actual work for the depot. The expense would be eligible grant expenses, Patton said, but with no guarantee we would get the grant, Suffridge is apprehensive.

At this point, he says the nonprofit has about $4,900 available for the depot project and is considering using that to make some immediate repairs. He has asked for a cost estimate of restoring the appearance of the outside of the building. This we hope would include sealing the doors and windows.

A year ago the estimate for this work was at about $10,000 but supply chain problems worldwide have pushed up the cost of materials. Suffridge is checking now to see what can be done with the current funds available.

Part of the goal is to maintain public confidence in the project. For more than a year the depot has sat largely untouched. Though the foundation and new roof look great, the rest of the siding on the building, especially toward the bottom, is quite ragged. 

“I wish we could make it look good and encourage people to donate,” Suffridge said.

While no work has been done over the last year, he and others in town are keeping a close eye on the depot. When it was noticed recently that a window was falling in, Jimmy Middleton, another key leader in this effort, made sure to seal the opening.

Once the exterior is fixed, repairs would likely focus on the floor, which is soft in spots. If no large grant happens, Suffridge is looking at restoration work then being done inside the depot in phases to different areas, likely starting with the office. 

Regardless of whether we get additional grant funding, continued donations will be key in helping this project continue. They are tax deductible and can be made online through the Go Fund Me box below.

While in the depot nearly a year ago on Jan. 29, 2021, I heard the sound of an approaching Little Rock & Western locomotive blasting its horn at the crossings in Perry. I looked out the door in time to see the lone locomotive pass in front of the depot, then stop at the railroad’s headquarters on the next block. 

Having active service on the line, typically with one train departing, then returning on weekdays, will be great when the depot finally opens with the sound of passing trains harkening to the days when this was a busy part of the Rock Island’s line running between Memphis, Tennessee and Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

FORMER EMPLOYEE REUNIONS AND INTERVIEWS

More than 40 years after the bankrupt Rock Island was shut down in 1980, an ever-shrinking group of former Arkansas employees of the Rock Island continue to meet regularly. I was at the most recent annual reunion on Oct. 4, 2021 to visit with them and to share the latest on the effort to preserve the Perry depot.

After I spoke briefly to the group, Jerry Oates, president of the Rock Island Club, told me they will donate the brakeman’s passenger uniform of the late Bill Anderson to be displayed in the depot once we get to that point. I recorded an interview with Anderson at the 2017 reunion, including his recollections of Perry. His uniform would be a cherished part of the collection we hope to build.

I have been recording interviews with employees for decades and am now working to get the full interviews online. Just over a year ago I also started a project to digitize cassette tapes of interviews recorded by Tom Sandlin and share those on my website. He spoke with hundreds of employees over the span of a decade beginning in 2001. 

The oral histories are priceless in sharing the experiences of what it was like working for the railroad. I’ve been slowly producing a podcast series on the railroad, with the most recent episode focused on the experiences of engineers Harold Rhoads, Buddy Bryant and Howard Smith. All three have died since talking with Sandlin nearly two decades ago. Several times they mention Perry, which was a significant as a midway point for the Rock Island between Little Rock and Booneville.

We believe the depot was built 1918, replacing a smaller structure that was placed there when the tracks were first laid between Little Rock and Oklahoma by the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad between 1898 and 1899.  

You can help by making a donation, which is tax deductible, to either our Go Fund Me campaign or by sending a check to:

Perry County Historical Museum
P.O. Box 1128
Perryville, AR 72126

Please make out checks payable to Perry County Historical Museum. 

I welcome any additional information, photos, stories, comments or corrections. Write to: michael@hibblenradio.com.

To read previous updates on the depot, click on the link below.