Kent W&LE Station to be Moved Today

 

The former Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway passenger station in Kent is slated to be moved today to a new location. But it won’t be going far. It’s new home will be across the tracks from its current location.

Kent businessman Ted Klaassen Jr., the president of Components & Equipment International, agreed to buy the 133-year-old depot and to move it to his property.

The station, built in 1881, had been in danger of being razed in order to make room for expansion of Carter Lumber, which owns the property on which the depot current sits.

Klaassen plans to have the station rotated during the move so that the side facing the rails will continue to do so.

Workers from Stein House Movers prepared the station during the past week for its move today by digging out the earth around the foundation of the building.

Once the station is in place in its new location it will likely be used for storage, Klaassen said.

Moving the depot is expected to cost $15,000.

Kent Feed and Supply was the last tenant of the station, but it closed last year. Carter Lumber had in 2012 acquired the property on which the depot sits and worked with Kent groups interested in saving the depot. Otherwise, the lumber company had planned to demolish it.

The last scheduled passenger train to use the station was a Cleveland-Wheeling, W.Va., roundtrip that last operated on July 17, 1938.

 

 

Tags: Kent railroad stations, Kent W&LE station, Railroad stations, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway