Endangered:

Stafford Santa Fe Depot

Photo Credit to https://kimscountyline.blogspot.com/2016/11/is-sun-setting-on-stafford-depot.html
The Stafford Depot is a historic Sante Fe depot in Stafford Kansas. While many passenger depots have been abandoned in these smaller towns some have found new life as museums or even residential homes. This is the hope for the Stafford Depot but time is ticking.

The Historic Preservation Alliance in Wichita has been a part of the efforts to save this building since 2016 when they started communications with the BNSF. Things started to solidify in 2018 between the two parties as the HPA collected and provided all the documentation requested by BNSF. The main focus of these emails was the donation of the building and BNSF concern and need for a plan and proof of funds for a fence around the building to provide a barrier between the still used train tracks and any members of the public, to which HPA happily and swiftly provide. The City of Stafford even went as far to resecure the building to deter vandals and further environmental deterioration of the inside as a form of civic pride, without the help of BNSF. Then communication went cold.

While efforts to ensure its preservation have been going on for around 20 years its not sure if the bid will be successful as the BNSF doesn’t seem to want to work on the preservationist’s timeline. A similar situation has happened with the depot in Florence Kansas. Around this time last year thought that their dreams of preserving one of Kansas’s only ~250 remaining depots were about to come true with the BNSF finally agreeing to donate the building and sending over a contract. But this was less than a great deal, “At the time of that writing everything about the donation of our depot seemed to be falling into place. However, BNSF sent two contracts.  One donated the depot to us.  The second was a contract to lease the land on which the depot sits.  That contract was insulting. They would lease us the land for 10 years with possible renewal at their discretion and on their terms, which might be decided sometime in the future.  Also, the lease contract could be terminated at any time in the 10 years with some relatively short notice and any improvements we had made had to be removed.  Meanwhile, we need BNSF approval in advance to do anything to the depot.” Said Rob Rusk, head of the Florence Depot Preservation Project.

The similarities are the same for Stafford, making it impossible to sign these contracts and actually save these buildings.