NEW SIGN … Bruce Zigler of Bryan, member of the Stryker Area Heritage Council, stands next to one of the four signs he built to specifications based on the original signs that hung on the Stryker railroad depot 120 years ago.
By: Bill Priest
Thanks to some recent renovations, the former Stryker train depot has a new look taking it back to its early 1900’s roots. Four new signs, replicas of the original signs with the village name, have been added to each side of the 120-year-old depot which today houses the headquarters of the Stryker Area Heritage Council.
Bruce Zigler from Bryan, a member of the local history council, said it took about two years to complete the project. He said he first met with SAHC trustee Sue Buehrer and her husband, Ben, who had borrowed an original depot sign from a local resident and had old photos of the signs on the depot.
While the sign was quite weathered, the Buehrers took photos and documented the original dimensions of the sign.
Each sign is 108 inches long and almost 13 inches wide. The signs had to be made from two sheets of pine as Zigler couldn’t find single boards large enough to match the width they needed. He used biscuits and joiners to bring the boards together.
“I then cut the edges down to the correct shape and then I routed the edge all the way around so it had the correct 45-degree bevel on it,” he said.
It was also helpful that the Buehrers had the original scans of the lettering so he could make a plastic template of each letter which he used to paint each letter onto the signs. Looking at the original sign, Zigler said it was obvious that the style of lettering was changed several times through the years.
He believes the one he used is the font on the original signs when the depot was new in 1900.
All told, it took about two years to complete the process. He finished the sign facing North Depot Street first and it was hung on the building in the spring of 2019.
He then worked on the other three signs which were hung sometime in the fall this year. Zigler said Stryker Welding constructed the brackets that hold the signs in place and hung both the brackets and signs on the building. Zigler didn’t know how long it has been since the signs were taken down.
A new brick walkway was also added to the west side of the depot. Sue Buehrer said the bricks, made in Wooster, Ohio, were originally used in sidewalks in different parts of the town. As they were replaced by concrete, the bricks were stored at Stryker Welding.
When the business constructed their new addition several years ago, the bricks were moved to the depot and are the ones used in the new walkway.
Mrs. Buehrer said that while they had a couple offers from volunteers to lay the bricks, the heritage council opted to hire Creek’s Landscaping of Bryan to do the work since the walkway would be in place for a long time to come.
To complete the work, the town added some gravel along the south side of the building facing the railroad tracks Buehrer said following the completion of this project, the council hopes to renovate the lighting inside the depot.
While the present depot building goes back 120 years, it is actually Stryker’s third railroad depot. In a brochure written for the Stryker heritage council, local historian Kevin Maynard noted that Stryker’s first railroad station appears to have been a small combination passenger/freight station on the south side of the tracks.
The second depot was also a wooden depot built in 1876 on the north side of the tracks. It was destroyed by fire on March 22, 1900. The existing passenger depot was completed about July 9, 1900 on or near the site of the previous depot. Passenger service from the Stryker station ceased around 1956.
The depot is part of the rich railroad heritage of the Stryker community and today houses historic artifacts of the Stryker, Evansport and Lockport area as the headquarters of the Stryker Area Heritage Council.