I have blogged about this before, but I wanted to share some photos of the past in Woodward. The early urban trolley were powered on electric cables just like the big city trolley. They had a rural line going to a lot of the main towns in order to connect them to the big city, Des Moines. Those who were still alive from that time, tell that they worked in Des Moines and they would ride down the rails everyday to work. This trolley is an earlier one as I can count the number of windows to know how big they were. I call this the 7 window trolley. The later and last trolley had 13 windows.
The present day building was recently restored to look more closely like this view of the depot. Notice that farmers shipped cans of milk and other goods via the trolley. That meant the driver was responsible for getting shipments to the right locations. I suppose they had to load the freight or someone who worked out of the depot was paid to load it. I want you to take note of the open door on this side of the build to the left of the dormer.
This is the inside of the depot today and the vertical siding is where that open door existed in the previous photo. My wife and I have been commissioned to paint a mural to fit that opening of the past doorway, where the vertical siding is now. They want it to look like you can see the trolley outside on the deck ready for people to load. The added feature that is going to be included inside is a sliding door, like a barn door on rails, to slide over the mural. The door will be shut, covering the mural, when they feel it has any safety issues from those who would be renting out the building.
We will start work on this during the month of March and I will post the results as time goes by.
7 comments:
How very interesting this is to me. My daddy worked 44 years with Atlanta Transit and worked on trolleys in the days before buses and then trains. What an honor for you two to paint this mural. I look forward to following your progress.
Must have been cool to remeber that back in it's prime
What an honor and exciting project for you and your wife, I can't wait to see your progress. It's wonderful to see an old building being restored rather than demolished.
Sunny :)
That is so exciting. It sounds like it is going to be a labor of love. I am sure you will paint a beautiful mural. What an honor to be asked to add your touch to a piece of history. Just think of how many people will see your work. That is very impressive. I am anxious to see how it progresses.
Isn't this an exciting project for you both.
We have an old train depot here in town, the city has restored it as part of a living village called Fiddler's Grove. omplete with a bank, sherrif's dept, jail, post office, the list goes on and on. I love to see old buildings repurposed.
Can't wait to see the mural! Congrats. on getting the job to do it.
Wow..it will be a great project..I can't wait to see the finished results!! :)
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