May 20, 2010
Ritzville depot centennial celebration
kicks off Memorial Day
The Ritzville Railroad Depot is 100 years old in 2010. Memorial Day weekend will be the kickoff for a six-month long celebration for the depot.
T-shirts and hats commemorating the 100 years will be on sale at the depot. Different exhibits and displays are planned continuing through the summer and into the fall, with a rededication of the Ritzville Depot planned for the first weekend in December.
The original date of the depot’s dedication was on Dec. 7, 1910.
Ritzville had long lobbied for a larger, more modern depot, as the original depot, built in 1881 when Northern Pacific first laid tracks through Ritzville, was hopelessly outmoded with not even running water or bathroom facilities for men or women. This older wooden depot was located directly across the railroad tracks from where the present depot now stands.
Originally Northern Pacific proposed to simply remodel the old depot, but this proposal was turned thumbs down by the City of Ritzville.
There were more delays, much letter-writing and finally in 1909, it was announced that a grand new depot would be built here in Ritzville.
The Washington State Journal in its June 24, 1909, newspaper had a large front page announcement stating: “A FINE BRICK DEPOT. The Journal wishes to make exclusive announcement that the Northern Pacific railway has agreed with the Washington State Railroad Commission that it will commence work at once on a fine brick depot for Ritzville…”
In the Sep. 16, 1909, Ritzville Times it was reported “that a civil engineer, J. C. Staser of the Northern Pacific had been in Ritzville this week with his crew, laying out the new depot site and the yardage surrounding it. He also resurveyed the entire trackage system in the extensive railroad yard in Ritzville.
“With the change of the depot to the new site a complete rearrangement of the main line and the sidings will be necessary. The survey is being made also for the grades for water works and sewage, etc. for the new depot. The construction department on the St. Paul end is pushing this vigorously and it is expected that considerable work will be done before the late fall season sets in.”
Construction of the new depot was supposed to have started on April 1, 1910, but kept getting delayed. The contractor, Thomas Brady of St. Paul, Minn., had recently constructed the North Yakima depot.
The Ritzville depot was touted even before it was built as “the finest depot between Spokane and Yakima.” After several more months, in June 1910, ground was broken for the depot.
