Western Railroad Discussion > Toto Tuesday: Unexpected uncovering at the Lawrence SFe Station

The city of Lawrence recently began the next phase of improvements to the Santa Fe station in Lawrence. The plan is to construct a parking lot in the southeast of the station between it and the Kennedy Glass property. When a foot of dirt and gravel was removed, they discovered a large section of brick paving, 45 feet wide, stretching from the depot to the alley between New Jersey and Pennsylvania Streets.

No one, including myself or anyone in the East Lawrence neighborhood, was aware of the existence of this brick pavement. Based on Sandborn maps and other anecdotal data, depot project architect Stan Hernly believes this was the foundation of the old Freight House.

1. Looking north from the Kennedy Glass property. The brick paving is situated alongside the house track next to the station.

2. There is a gap in the brick paving. This was likely the location of the former spur that served the beer warehouse that is now known as the Van Go building

3. The west end of the brick pavement.

Richie Kennedy
Lawrence, KS
route56.com

---

---

---

4: The south edge of the brick pavement features a concrete or limestone edge.

5: Looking west from the east end of the brick. You can tell that the void in the brick points to the Van Go building.

6: Apparently, they also discovered an old Storm Sewer Manhole, with some loose brick and a railroad tie plate with spikes

Richie Kennedy
Lawrence, KS
route56.com

---

---

---

My guess is that it was a brick platform at one time. I doubt the bricks were a "foundation." Maybe the old freight house had a platform. That's just my two-cent opinion. 

Joe McMillan

RS12394 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My guess is that it was a brick platform at one
> time. I doubt the bricks were a "foundation."
> Maybe the old freight house had a platform. That's
> just my two-cent opinion. 
>
> Joe McMillan

That would be my guess too. However, I was involved with the renovation of Wichita Union Station and we uncovered brick pavers used for floor construction of the freight building, and lighter pavers for the basement floor of the passenger station. Brick pavers were utilized often for warehouse conditions at grade because of local availability. Buffalo Block pavers were ideal for such conditions. It would be interesting to line this up with a sanborn map to see if the footprint for a freight depot or the platform was at the location of this photograph. 

 

Brick was also considered a fire proof material and was used instead of wood when they needed to have a "Fire Proof" building.   Not everywhere had concrete used as floors and brick could also be easily reused or dug up if they needed to get under the floor.

Nice photo coverage of the interesting find in Lawrence.

Rich

PasadenaSub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice photo coverage of the interesting find in
> Lawrence.
>
> Rich

Agree and it will be intersting to see what they do with this brick.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA