Depot restoration efforts recognized
By Robert Cloud
For two decades, Mike Kirk has worked to restore the Waupaca Train Depot.
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution recognized Kirk’s efforts Friday, July 2.
They presented him with the DAR’s Historic Preservation Award.
Built in 1907, the old Soo Line railroad depot was a major transportation hub for Waupaca for decades.
Passenger service to Waupaca ended in 1965 and the building was left vacant for nearly four decades.
“Over the years, the abandoned building became heavily vandalized and fell into disrepair,” said Joanne Hagen, preservation chair with the DAR’s Nay-osh-ing Chapter in Plover. “It was covered in graffiti, roof tiles were broken, windows smashed and even a hole burnt into the floor.”
Hagen and Nay-osh-ing Chapter Regent Shannon Moore nominated Kirk for the DAR’s national preservation award.
“The work started with navigating zoning and finance,” Hagen noted in her letter recommending Kirk. “This process alone took about four years and included Mike putting up $10,000 of his own money to start.”
Kirk also worked to place the depot on the National Historic Register.
Volunteer efforts
He and other volunteers began repairs inside and outside the building.
Volunteers have spent thousands of hours refurbishing the building, replacing a fire-damaged floor and cleaning the grounds.
One of the biggest projects was repairing the Spanish tile roof.
“Mike used what good tiles there were and found a place that could manufacture replacements at a cost of $31,000,” Hagen noted.
Kirk then focused on the damaged flooring.
“He sanded and planed the usable boards and was also allowed to take flooring from the Waupaca Armory, which was about to be torn down,” Hagen said in her letter to the DAR. “This he did with a wheelbarrow and his truck.”
Kirk and volunteers cleaned soot from the exterior walls, repaired the fireplaces, repaired and painted the interior walls and replaced broken windows.
“A basement was dug under the facility by Mike and a friend using shovels and buckets,” Hagen said.
Visitors can now go into the basement and watch a working model train layout.
A barn that houses a baggage car from Waupaca’s early trolley line, a caboose and Soo Line potato car are located on the depot grounds.
In her letter to Moore announcing Kirk’s award, Sally Patterson, national vice chair of the DAR’s Historic Preservation Committee, observed the vital importance of railroads in American history.
“Without trains criss-crossing our country for over 150 years, our nation would no have grown at the pace that it did – particularly in the late 1800s,” Patterson wrote. “Our ancestors depended on these trains to transport them to new homes, or bring that new dress of bed they ordered from the Sears Catalog. So to preserve the history of his town by assisting in saving the Waupaca Train Depot is truly preserving American history.”
Back on Track
Those who attended the July 2 award presentation also saw a trailer for an upcoming documentary, “Back on Track.”
Created by Ron Scott and Matt Hauser, the film tells the story about local efforts to restore the Waupaca Train Depot.
They began work on the film in late 2019 and plan to complete it shortly after September 2021, which marks the 150th anniversary of the original line that ran through Waupaca, the Wisconsin Central Railroad.
To help raise funds for the project, the filmmakers set up a GoFundMe page under “Waupaca Train Depot Documentary.”