Owning a building in Oklahoma entails unending efforts to maintain that building, inside and outside. To the latter, regardless of the type of exterior materials used–even if concrete, masonry, tile, plastic, but especially if wood–watchfulness remains a constant.

Oklahoma weather–with its extremes of heat, dry, wet, wind, and cold–is hard on structures. Ignore your building–whether it’s house, barn, church, office, store, or even your fencing–to your financial detriment.

The Santa Fe Depot suffers from unwatchfulness. Who dropped the ball there is difficult to ascertain when charges and countercharges of neglect are leveled. Difficult, I guess, until the wording of contracts is studied by legal and property professionals. When agendas, turfs, or reputations are involved, though, things can get somewhat muddied.

It’s difficult to imagine a building in Oklahoma more architecturally pleasing than the rail depot off Shawnee’s Main Street. It’s a real gem. It’s neglect is a real shame. The thought of razing it a real put-off.

I’ve been a carpenter for 50 years, and the effort to re-hab a neglected structure takes patience and more money than you think. And regarding the Depot, it’ll take a lot of money to restore it with the care it deserves, with the care Shawnee deserves.

Could the Depot become a marquis project? A fully restored, one-of-a-kind structure that out-of-towners would visit? That residents would visit? One containing not only a railroad museum, but also perhaps a restaurant, gift shop, info center, meeting room, music venue, playground area with “The Little Engine That Could” (or the like), all integrated and coordinated with the Pott. County Musuem and made part of a thriving Main Street?

With the advances in battery technology, maybe Shawnee could have a few pneumatic-tired, electric shuttles (resembling street cars) with the Depot as hub–for tourists and for residents–thus becoming a viable community amenity, especially for excited children, old folks, working moms, and college kids.

There are other structures within a stone’s throw of the Depot which also could be rehabilitated, and there are a few which need to be razed. But for Pete’s sake, let’s not raze the Santa Fe Depot. It has too much history, too much meaning, and too much potential for us to downgrade it into a pile of rubble only then to haul it all off to a dumping ground.