The Foley depot returns home

After 24 years the historic L&N Railroad depot was returned to Foley on August 16, 1996, from its temporary home in Magnolia Springs.

A part of Foley came home this week.

Wednesday afternoon, amid smiles, curious glances and even a few curses, movers brought the old Foley train depot, circa 1905, back to the town’s original whistlestop alongside the now defunct L & N railroad.

“I escorted it out and I said, ‘I’m going to bring it back, too,’” declared Gulf Telephone Company President Marjorie Snook, who donated the building to the city.

Snook and her late husband

Staff photos by Mike Strecker

A utility worker lends a hand as the Foley depot makes a hairpin turn on its way back home to downtown Foley.

John, bought the depot in 1971 and moved it to company property in Magnolia Springs.

Time weathered it, vandals broke in and set it on fire, but the building survived. Now the city plans to renovate the clapboard structure and convert it into an archival complex for records, photographs and memorabilia from Foley’s past.

“It’s a great day for Foley,” Mayor Arthur Holk said after presenting a bouquet of flowers to Snook.

Snook lead the movers and their towering cargo from Magnolia Springs to the depot’s final resting spot just behind the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce building on East Laurel Avenue.

“Been a hot, long day,” a flushed Snook said when the building was finally in place. “I went down there (to Magnolia Springs) at 8 a.m.”

Workers spent four days bracing the building and separating it into two manageable parts for the eight hour move.

“Normally it don’t take this long. It had an extremely high roof and they didn’t want us to cut it since it’s historical,” said Clay Fauver of Fauver House Movers.

A high roof meant movers had to wait as crews raised utility lines for the depot to pass beneath.

Fauver praised utility crews and their police escort but said the move was still tough.

“Man, it’s about as nerve-wracking and stressful a job as you can get,” Fauver said.

Others tended to agree.

“I ain’t been cussed out like this since that last parade,” a Foley police officer remarked. “Folks accusing my parents of not being married.”

In an attempt to avoid heavily travelled areas, the depot took a circuitous route — from Baldwin County Road 49 to County Road 24 to County Road 55 to County Road 28 and finally onto Ala. Highway 59.

Traffic slowed to a crawl and onlookers lined Ala. Highway 59 as the depot lumbered toward its destination, arriving just in time for an afternoon thunderstorm.

Frank and Elizabeth Smith, longtime Foley residents, came to watch as the depot was brought home.

“Back in those days that was the center of activity,” said Frank Smith, who opened a furniture store in Foley in the mid-1940s.

Smith said the depot would “bring back a lot of memories for some us old folks.”

“Years ago just about everything came by rail,” he said.

City Councilmen Charlie Ebert, who was instrumental in getting the depot relocated, filmed its arrival with a VCR.

“Now that it’s in place, we’ll do some cosmetic work on it right quick,” Ebert said.

The city received a federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act grant of $122,500 for the moving and partial renovation of the depot.

Officials hope to garner another ISTEA grant of $200,000 for additional renovations and maintenance.

The city is required to provide 30 percent in matching funds for such grants.

Ebert said renovating the building could cost as much as $100,000. He said it would be at least a year before the archive building is opened to the public.