To celebrate National Historic Preservation week the Redlands Area Historical Society will host a walking tour of the Santa Fe Depot Historic District on Saturday, May 19th beginning at 9:00 a.m. Tom Atchley, vice-president of the Historical Society will lead the tour. The depot is located at 351 Orange Street.
The tour will encompass the depot as well as surrounding historic buildings. Arthur Brown, Jr., on the the great American Classic architects, designed the depot while teamed with the firm of Bakewell & Brown of San Francisco. The depot combines Classical and Spanish Mission style elements. Santa Fe Railroad invested $32,000 in the 1909 building and had F.O. Bergstram firm of Los Angeles construct the new depot. The famous Kite-Shaped railroad tour brought five trains a day during the tourist season to Redlands.
The tour will also include the Edwards-Chamblin packing house, the old Chamber of Commercie, two city transfer buildings, the Worley Building, Phinney Block, Packard Motor Car Co., and the twin Hamilton 1888 buildings with one of the towns housing Romano’s restaurant.
The fee for the tour is $10 for Historical Society members and $15 for non-members. No reservations are necessary just show up and join the tour.