It's the Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Depot, and here's the story

Many thanks to Ted Fulmore of the New Albany Historic Preservation Commission for this note to NA Confidential, which explains what's going on down by the floodwall.

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Hope I can help fill in the blanks on the questions on the Schmitt Warehouse.

The building in question is the Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Depot (c. 1886).

The Scribner Place plan does call for its demolition. However, I would ask for a little patience on this one. The New Albany Historic Preservation Commission is taking the lead on doing some research on this building. There are no plans for immediate demolition.

Believe it or not, it's a pretty sound structure. A photograph from the late 1950's shows that the depot has been butchered over the years. Arched windows have been bricked in*, a roof was cut off, some brick detailing was removed with the roof, etc.

The Commission is documenting the historical significance of the depot and obtaining estimates of restoring the depot. Historic Landmarks is researching funding options for a restoration. No date is set yet, but we are to report back to the City with our findings (hopefully within a couple of weeks).

The perfect world resolution is that the depot would be worked into existing Scribner plans at little or no extra cost. The worst case scenario is that the funding does not exist to restore and demo takes place.

A couple important notes:

1. The building is not within the districts of the Downtown Historic District.

2. The building not listed on the National Register of Historic Places - meaning an important source of funding (Federal) may not be available.

Also, listing it on the National Register may be difficult because the building has been altered so extensively.

You also had a question about why this took so long to come up. It took the Floyd County Historian to point out to us what the building was. Honestly, I'd jogged by it a 100 times and never gave it a second glance. Because of the lopped-off roof, you'd assume it was built much more recently than 1886. When I get the chance tomorrow, I'll email you a picture of the old photo. The depot has been an agenda item at the last two NAHPC meetings - which are public meetings the public generally does not attend.

We'll do our best to build a case for incorporating the depot in the Scribner project.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

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* NA Confidential asks: What's with the Schmitts and windows? How did the Reisz Furniture Building get by without its windows being boarded up or bricked in? For the record, hyelophobia (or hyalophobia) is a fear of glass. I can't find "fear of windows" that doesn't refer to the Microsoft product, which is a sad reflection on the state of geekdom in the world.