Safety and security, Union Depot to be topics for Wednesday meeting
Jun. 19—The Union Depot and downtown security and safety will be topics of the next meeting held by the Downtown Joplin Alliance, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pennington Station, 518 S. Virginia Ave.
Students and professors from South Dakota State University School of Design will present results from a community input session held in February about possible uses for the historic railroad depot.
It has been sitting empty 50 years, but there have been renewed efforts to find a new life for it.
Members of the Downtown Joplin Alliance's Endangered Properties Program have been working with a local commercial real estate firm and advisers from two universities to find a use for the 113-year-old train station.
About 80 people attended the depot meeting in February.
"We are working through the Endangered Properties Program to focus on the buildings downtown that may have the shortest life span," Lori Haun, director of the DJA, said at that time. "We're trying to figure out how to intervene for this building before it's too late."
The concrete building was assessed as structurally sound recently but could deteriorate in a few years without maintenance or repair work.
Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss designed the depot and used chat from local mines for the concrete. He became famous for curtain wall and concrete construction that was considered fireproof. Construction started in 1910, and the depot opened in June 1910 as a crowd of 2,500 people cheered the arrival of the first train at the station. The last passenger train, operated by the Kansas City Southern Railway Co., was the Southern Belle that left Joplin on Nov. 11, 1969.
A group of students and faculty from Kansas State University helped gather local information and community comments about best uses for the building during a February visit to Joplin. In addition, architectural students from South Dakota State University's School of Design also attended in February to put together information that could help them produce renderings of what the depot could look like if restored.
Their conclusions and renderings will be included in a package of information about the depot that can be provided to those who express interest in the depot for a project.
Ideas discussed in February included a downtown boutique hotel, tying it into the local trail system, bringing train rides or train service back, and a food hall or food court with indoor and outdoor seating, retail spaces and art studios.
There also will be a presentation from the Joplin Police Department on safety and security downtown and how trespass affidavits can help protect downtown property.
