Depot at Perry gets green light to move

Town to relocate century-old building

Special to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The Rock Island Railroad Depot in Perry is seen in 1960.
Special to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The Rock Island Railroad Depot in Perry is seen in 1960.

The old Rock Island Railroad Depot at Perry will soon be moving down the line.

About 150 feet down the line.

For the past year and a half, an effort has been underway to save the century-old depot from demolition.

On Aug. 20, the Little Rock & Western Railway gave its blessing for Perry to take the building and move it.

"It's amazing how hard it is to give away a depot," said Ryan Richardson, general manager of the railway, referring to paperwork and regulatory hurdles.

The town of Perry, population 314, actually bought the depot for $10. The building will be moved so the railway can construct a new building on the depot site, which is next to a locomotive maintenance shed.

If all goes according to plan, the old depot will be restored at its new location and will eventually house a museum.

The move should take place in a couple of weeks, said Buford Suffridge of North Little Rock, who is president of the Perry County Historical and Genealogical Society.

Perry Mayor Britt Ryles said the town donated land for the depot relocation and hauled in 20 loads of shale to raise the elevation.

"The citizens of Perry really want to see it stay here," Ryles said.

Preserve Arkansas started the effort to save the Perry depot, said Rachel Patton, executive director of the nonprofit preservation organization. Patton said she heard about the planned depot demolition from someone at the railway's parent company, Arkansas Midland Railroad.

Perry was incorporated in 1914 and grew around the railroad, Patton said.

"If the Rock Island Railroad hadn't come through there," she said, "then there probably wouldn't have been a town of Perry."

The railroad line going through Perry was constructed in about 1899 by the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad to transport coal from Indian Territory to the Mississippi River at Memphis, according to Preserve Arkansas.

In 1904, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad bought the Choctaw railroad, allowing it to link Memphis, Little Rock and Oklahoma City with Tucumcari, N.M., where passengers could transfer to Southern Pacific trains going to California, according to Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg.

The railroad's name became ingrained in the American psyche through a folk song called "The Rock Island Line," which apparently has Arkansas roots.

In 1920, the company was encouraging employees to "boost" the Rock Island brand, wrote Bragg.

"Music was at the forefront of this effort, with choirs and singing groups sent to perform at public gatherings, their members encouraged to write material that promoted the railroad," he wrote. "One of the booster groups, The Rock Island Colored Quartet, was formed by workers from the company's central freight yard and repair shops at Biddle, [a rail yard] just outside Little Rock, Arkansas. In January 1930, the Rock Island Magazine reported that a member of the quartet, engine wiper Clarence Wilson, had composed a booster song titled 'Buy Your Ticket Over Rock Island Lines,' which was being performed in the Little Rock area."

The song referred to different characters that worked out of the Biddle depot and extolled the virtues of the railroad, wrote Blagg:

"Rock Island Line is a mighty good road

"Passengers get on board if you want to ride

"Ride it like you're flying

"Be sure to buy your ticket

"Over the Rock Island Line"

The first known recording of the song was made in 1934 when musicologist John Lomax recorded inmates singing it at Arkansas' Cummins prison, according to The Penguin Book Of American Folk Songs, which was compiled and edited by his son, Alan Lomax.

The song, with various lyrics, was recorded by many people over the years, including Dyess native Johnny Cash.

Preserve Arkansas listed the Perry depot this year as one of its 10 most endangered places.

"Built about 1918, the Rock Island Railroad Depot at Perry is the only remaining wood-frame depot from the Rock Island line in Arkansas," according to Preserve Arkansas.

The last regular passenger train came through Perry in November 1967.

Suffridge, 77, said he remembers hearing that passenger service would stop on the Rock Island line through Arkansas, so he decided to ride the train in 1966 from Memphis, where he was in dental school, to Perry.

But the train didn't stop at Perry anymore. Instead, it took him 25 miles farther down the line to Ola. Suffridge's mother, father, aunt and uncle drove over to Ola to pick him up. The train arrived at 4 a.m., about four hours late.

"From Little Rock to Copperas Gap, they were probably running at 5 miles per hour," Suffridge said. "I could have stepped off the train at Copperas Gap."

But by the time the train got to Perry, it was going 50 miles per hour, Suffridge said. Too fast to step off at the Perry depot.

The Rock Island line filed for bankruptcy in 1975. Five years later, a federal judge ordered the railroad to shut down. Former railroad employees created the shortline Little Rock & Western Railway to service industries between Little Rock and Danville using old Rock Island tracks, according to Preserve Arkansas.

But the railroad just goes as far as Ola now, about 67 miles from Little Rock, said Richardson.

After the depot is moved, preservationists will be able to apply for listing it on the National Register of Historic Places, Patton said. Normally, buildings that have been moved don't qualify for listing on the register, but they can qualify if they were moved because of imminent threat of demolition, she said. A register listing can help a municipal government get grants for restoration of a building, she added.

Patton said she asked Michael Hibblen to speak to the Perry County historical society about a year ago. He's the author of Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas and news director for KUAR, the National Public Radio station at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Ever since then, Hibblen has been a liaison between the railroad and groups trying to save the depot. He's been blogging about it regularly at hibblenradio.com.

"It's been a long battle to make this happen," Hibblen said. "The railroad played such a vital role, they'd like to see this preserved."

Suffridge said moving the building will cost between $7,000 and $8,000. The group is still raising money to pay the moving company. They've already paid $6,200 for insurance that was required by the railway, he said.

Hibblen said the old depot appears to be in good shape. One reason is because it was never abandoned. When the railway stopped using the building as a depot, it was used for storage.

"It doesn't look like there's any water damage in it or termite damage," he said. "It looks like it's in pretty good shape. The roof is sagging quite a bit so it will have to be replaced."

Jimmy Middleton, 83, a lifelong Perry resident, said he remembers troops going to World War II passing through Perry on the train. The military police wouldn't let the soldiers off the train. The local kids would buy them candy bars at King's Cafe, which also served as the Greyhound bus stop. The soldiers had only fruit, which they were happy to trade for Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars.

Middleton said Perry had a lot of clout back then. Perryville, the county seat, was 3 miles to the south, over a hill. But the Perry depot was Perry County's connection to the outside world. Everything came into and out of the county by train, including the mail. And Perry grew as a result.

Perry had a bank, three service stations, a jailhouse, a movie theater, a shoe store and a barber, said Middleton.

The town had a lawyer named G.B. Colvin, who died in 1951 at the age of 74 after serving three terms as a state representative.

"I'd see him going down the road, his head bobbing up and down," Middleton said. "It was an old vehicle he had, even back then, but I remember that specifically."

Middleton was instrumental in raising money to restore the old Perry High School gymnasium, which was built in 1938. Local men play basketball games there. They pay $2 each, which keeps the lights on.

Middleton said it shouldn't be hard to raise money to restore the old depot.

"What is money?" he said. "Money is just something you pass around."

NW News on 08/27/2018

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