Fire destroys historic Southern Pacific Railroad depot in Long Beach
A Long Beach train depot originally built in 1907 was destroyed by fire early Friday.
A historic railroad depot undergoing renovation in Long Beach was destroyed by a fire early Friday morning, fire officials said.
The Long Beach Fire Department began receiving calls at 2:37 a.m., reporting a fire near the intersection of California Avenue and East 27th Street. When firefighters arrived, they found the Southern Pacific Railroad depot fully engulfed in flames, said Jake Heflin, a spokesman for the department.
“The fire was in such advanced stages that the building was well involved and subsequently collapsed,” Heflin said.
Firefighters knocked down the fire at about 3:24 a.m. and there were no injuries reported. The cause remains under investigation.
Firefighters initially believed the burning building was a church, then realized it was a train depot.
“This is a tragic loss for our city,” the fire department posted on Facebook.
The building, originally built in 1907 near Broadway and Pacific Avenue, was the last remaining of three railroad stations that once served downtown Long Beach, according to the city.
It was relocated in 1936 to the Public Service Yard on San Francisco Avenue, where it served for many years as the city’s Material and Chemical Testing Laboratory before being used for storage.
Last year, it was moved to the southwest corner of Willow Springs Park, near the site of former railroad tracks that had been used by the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad.
The depot, which was 66 feet long and 30 feet wide, was undergoing a multiyear restoration before it would reopen as a visitor center for the park, Heflin said.
When the city announced last year that the structure would be moved and renovated, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia lauded the project as an example of historic preservation and adaptive reuse happening throughout the city.
“We’re all very excited to see this nearly forgotten Long Beach landmark get a new life at Willow Springs Park,” Garcia said at the time.
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