Oregon Trunk Railroad Depot, Bend Address:  Shevlin-Hixon Drive, Bend, OR. Year Built:  1911 Architect:  Unknown Builder:  Southerland & McIntosh Landmark Status:  Local Landmark The Bend Oregon Trunk Railway Passenger Station is significant for its contribution to the development of Bend and the Central Oregon Region. Additionally it is one of only three depot properties remaining from what many historians call "the last great railroad war." The war was a battle between two of the most powerful railroad men of the time, James H. Hill of the Great Northern Railroad and Edward H. Harriman of the Union Pacific. The two companies battled up the Deschutes River canyon, constructing tracks on either side of the river. The first to reach the newly created town of Bend would have control over what was regarded as the largest remaining portion of the United States not served by a railroad. Eventually Hill would win the fight and the Bend Railroad station would serve as the terminus of the Oregon Trunk Line. The completion of the railroad was the key that connected Central Oregon's resources to the rest of the country. The Bend Oregon Trunk Railway Passenger Station is a standardized railroad station plan, utilizing local materials and a high level of craftsmanship. It embodies early 20th century architecture of the Arts & Crafts period and exhibits distinctive characteristics of railroad passenger stations of the period. As such, it is an excellent example from the railroad era and the associated events and settlement of the period. After years of negotiation and anticipation, construction of the Oregon Trunk Railway Passenger Station in Bend began on September 13, 1911. The Bend Commercial Club agreed to pay $337.50 dollars to have the building constructed of tuff stone rather than wood. Their desire was not only to make an architectural statement, but to make the town and passenger stop a permanent fixture on the landscape. Local Bend building contractors Sutherland & McIntosh acted as general contractors for the passenger station and freight house. By February 28, 1912 railway officials had moved into the new depot and the first passenger ticket was sold to R.J. Hausley. The Oregon Trunk Railroad Station is a one-story, rectangular building of cut tuff stone laid in a random range pattern. Its design incorporates many common elements of small town railroad station design. These include a rectangular footprint, a hipped roof with overhanging eaves, a central telegrapher's bay, a porte cochere and exposed structural elements including rafter tails, beams and brackets. The style of the building, referred to as Mission and Romanesque by various historians over the years, actually comes from the Arts & Crafts tradition of using local, native materials. The specific combination of masonry construction and the porte cochere design is limited to only four examples among all of Oregon's passenger railroad stations according to architectural historian Rosalind Keeney. These are the Oregon Trunk Stations in Bend and Redmond, and Southern Pacific stations in Corvallis and Albany. As a side note, the Bend depot is featured in Janet Greenstein Potter's book Great American Railroad Stations. The Bend passenger station is one of two duplicate designed stations. The other twin depot is in Redmond and is vacant. The only notable variation from the two buildings is the stone marker above the telegraph window, which reads "Bend" instead of "Redmond". The plans for the Bend station were prepared on a set of six sheets dated September 21, 1911 (actually 8 days after work had begun on the depot) and are signed by Ralph Budd, Chief Engineer. Both stations have a 5" wide belt course that protrudes 4" from the surrounding stone. Additionally the belt course is set 42" above the ground. Below the belt course the masonry flares out to the sill it rests upon. Over the windows and doors are large stone lintels. The exposed 4' x 12" rafter tails, and wide over-hanging eaves are supported by A-frame brackets, pointing directly toward the Craftsman style. The windows, now boarded over are double-hung, twenty-over-one. All remain intact. Before completion of the building, contractors stated the building would be the best of its kind in the State. They reportedly used plate glass throughout the building in the windows and doors. The massive hip roof was finished in an open rafter design and stained a dark mahogany and then highly varnished. The beams are visible today and still boast their original stain and decking color (a yellow ochre). The office floor was laid with the best fir available to the builders, and the waiting room floor was laid with a "chipped marble" as reported in the local newspaper. The floor most likely consisted of crushed black and white Italian marble and was polished to a high gloss. The floor in the Redmond Depot, the same design, is still visible today. Verification of a Terrazzo floor in the Bend depot is not known. Various glues, dirt and secondary floors have soiled the existing floor substantially. All telegraph and telephone wires were laid underground in conduit to hide the unsightly wires from the outside.   The first of numerous alterations to the passenger station began in 1923 with the installation of indoor toilets. In 1928 the original wooden platform was removed and a concrete platform was built. By 1942 a remodel of the interior spaces drastically changed the look of the waiting rooms when a drop ceiling was added hiding the exposed beams. Then in 1954 another drop ceiling was added to accommodate a new forced air-heating system. In 1958 passenger service from the Bend Station ended and the waiting rooms were converted to office space. At this time all lath and plaster wall were removed below the drop ceiling and 1/3 of the windows were covered over. After 80 years of service as a railroad related structure, in 1991 Burlington Northern was notified that they would have to vacate the building and move to a new location due to a new truck bypass that would directly passing though the site. Work immediately began to find a new owner of the depot and to set up a task force to evaluate ways to preserve the building. In 1993 eleven proposals were received to move the building including proposals from the City of Prineville, the City of Madras, Deschutes County and the Funny Farm. After careful consideration of all of the proposals the City of Prineville was awarded the depot and $300,000 to help defray the moving costs was allocated by ODOT. The city had proposed to move the building into downtown Prineville and use the structure as a terminus for the Crooked River Dinner train.   After five years of no activity on the depot site, in February of 1998 the Prineville City Council began to question the cost of moving the Bend Depot. Estimates acquired by the city reported that the cost would be well over $1 million dollars. Within less than a month the City of Prineville had pulled out of the deal to move both the Bend and Redmond Depots. By July ODOT had reopened the biding process to seek a new owner for the depot and held firm to committing $300,000 toward the effort. In August, ODOT and the reconvened Depot Task Force had six new proposals on the table: The Bend LaPine School District, Old Towne Restoration, River Bend Partnership, Deschutes County, Bend Riverside Motel and a pair of contractors who proposed to convert the depot into a B & B. The six were quickly pared down to three, and by October the final award of the depot was to River Bend Limited Partnership. They group moved the depot to the west side of the river and leased the structure to the Central Oregon Arts Association.

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