Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am interested in some 1920's era photos of the Seaboard Air Lines Depot in Gainesville, Florida. The depot will be restored and will become the anchor attraction in a 40 acre park in downtown Gainesville. I am interested in interior as well as exterior photos. Also some views of the general condition of the area would be helpful. The city is considering having a railroad museum or other railroad attraction at the site.

Thank you

-- Ed Morales (morales@bergmannpc.com), March 06, 2002

Answers

An brief update on the SAL depot restoration project ran in the Gainesville Sun yesterday.

http://gainesvillesun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20030730/LOCAL/207300334/1007

It would be great to see a true railroad museum developed in the building at some point.

-- Jeff Gerlach (jgerlach@trainsofthought.com), July 31, 2003.

I dont know how many times a proposal had come up to restore the depot, but it never seemed to happen. I dont live in gainesville anymore, would be nice to see it happen, but knowing the gainesville city comission and how things work up there, i wont believe it until i see it done. They have more important things to do, like tax the hell out of everything up there and spend money on anti-growth studies. I dont think i will ever understand their "bite the hands that feeds you" mentality of the people who live there and the politicians.

end gainesville rant, glad I live in a real city now

if it does happen, let me know, i will go check it out

hope to god they dont paint it orange and blue

-- troy nolen (tnolen12@tampabay.rr.com), March 10, 2002.

Ed,

If you have not already done so, try the Matheson Historical Center in Gainesville. It contains a wealth of historical documentation.

A fellow student of mine at the University of Florida did a research paper on this building, and although I have not seen it, I believe it is still listed (along with my own student research project) among the College of Archictecture's holdings. The online citation is:

http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/afa/publications/presdox.html

[see esp. listings 627, 701]

I am very interested in this project and would be happy to be of any assistance that I can.

Best regards,

Jeff Gerlach

-- Jeff Gerlach (jgerlach@trainsofthought.com), March 07, 2002.