Future of the Santa Fe Depot

If you, like many of us, were expecting to drive down Myrtle Avenue in a few years to hop aboard the Gold Line light rail system and wait for the train’s arrival inside a newly renovated Santa Fe Depot, then you will need to reset your expectations.  Because that isn’t going to happen.

Monrovia’s Santa Fe Depot was originally built in 1926, and it was one of many stops along an expanding railroad system that enabled people to travel to Southern California from back east. The highly touted mild climate of Monrovia drew among others from their affliction (Hillcrest Boulevard, originally named Banana Avenue, was lined with banana trees as proof that these frost-sensitive plants could survive in the mild climate of the foothills). The railroads provided a means for these individuals to reach the Gem City with relative ease.

But times change, and the automobile gradually became the preferred choice for travel in the Los Angeles basin. So it was that the depot was shut down in 1972 and left to decay. Since its closure, vandals have struck the forlorn structure, pilfering some of the architectural details (some of which have been recovered), and residents and preservationists alike were left wondering what would become of the historic building. The extension of the Gold Line through Monrovia, passing alongside the depot and now projected to be completed sometime in 2015, has promised new life for the aging icon. 

According to Steve Sizemore, the Community Development Director for the City of Monrovia, the land on which the depot sits is currently owned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). By the end of this summer the city hopes to obtain the depot by exchanging land that will then be used by Metro for a parking structure. 

It is the city’s intention to restore the depot structure, although plans for its eventual use (public vs. private) and sources of money needed to complete the restoration have yet to be determined. Plans for the depot’s restoration are currently at the State Historic Resource Office, so it is hoped that those plans will be ready by the time the city owns the property and has obtained the funds necessary to complete the project.

As with many of the “best laid plans of mice and men”, the final outcome may not be the one hoped for. The optimists among us expect a resolution that will be satisfactory to all and that another “gem” will be resurrected to be enjoyed for future generations of Monrovians.