Terra cotta reds with avocado green and shiny black highlights make a century-old building a colorful spot in Orange.
Most people in town alive today remember the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot painted all white, but it wasn’t always that way. Contractor Jack Elliott and architect Rob Clark scraped through layers of paint to discover the original colors. Now the colors have returned from when the depot was first built more than 110 years ago.
The restoration is the result of a non-profit group formed nearly three years ago by former Orange resident Carrie Joiner Woliver. Friday, members of the Friends of the Orange Depot looked inside and out at the work on the project.
The brick was painted to match its original shade because sanding would damage the surface. The trim on windows and around the roof was painted green. Six months ago, the original cast iron was rusty. Now, they are shiny black.
Recessed LED lighting has been installed around the exterior and is now lit at night to show off the outside. The special lighting will also be inside.
A gift shop will be in the former ticket area in the middle. A museum and a community meeting room will be on opposite sides of the gift shop. The south area was once the waiting room and the north end was the baggage room.
John Cash Smith on Friday walked around and recalled the days when he and his parents made frequent trips to the depot to welcome friends coming to down on trains. Through the 1950s into the 1960s, four passenger trains a day stopped at the Orange depot, two in the morning and two in the afternoon or evening.
He said the Argonaut train was painted green and stopped at all the little towns along the way. The Southern Pacific’s flagship train was silver Sunset Limited that went from Florida to Los Angeles. It stopped in the bigger towns and Orange was included.
Contractor Elliott said the exterior of the depot is nearly finished and more work is now being done on the interior. Some pieces of the original ticket desk sill stand. He said the millwork is being done in a shop for the interior woodwork.
The Friends of the Orange Depot is still selling commemorative bricks to be used in the landscaping. The group is also having its annual fundraiser, the Denim and Diamonds Gala, on November 19. Information is available through orangetxdepot.org.
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