Having many more productive things to do today but intrigued by the idea, I decided to look deeper at Mr. Droste's blog and his theory that the Como depot was originally built as a Denver & Rio Grande depot in Denver (or possibly parts of 3 different D&RG buildings from Denver) and moved to Como.
Not being anywhere near the question at hand, all I could do is look a photos. From that it would seem that all of the depots built by the DSP&P in 1878-79 as the railroad built its way up the South Plate Canyon, over Kenosha Pass and on to Como share the same type of construction and details, including the size and type of windows and doors, type of siding and fancy trim pieces with scroll work atop the windows on the sides of the buildings. An 1879 photo of the Dome Rock station on page 29 of Ferrell's "The South Park Line" shows that building to be built the same way and have the same trim over its side windows as the Como depot. This would indicate that the fancy scrolled trim is a South Park innovation, not a D&RG thing that the South Park poorly copied when the assembled the Como Depot from parts of several D&RG buildings as Mr. Droste proposes in his blog. Photos that I could find show that the Fort Logan and Eastbrook depots share these features as well.
The Como Depot served the South Park and its successors for almost 60 years. Clearly the railroads added onto, repaired and modified the building multiple times during this period. 60 years of wear, tear, repair, reconfiguration and addition to the depot would appear to account for all of the anomalies Mr. Droste covers in his blog. In my view anyway, that is the most logical explanation.
While Mr. Droste's blog contains many detailed and well thought out snippets of information, it does not really present the whole picture of his theory. It would be interesting and informative if he would lay out his theory in its entirety. IE, what led him to the idea that the Como depot was assembled from parts of another railroad's buildings in Denver, a basic time line showing when the D&RG buildings in question were built and when the went away. Plans of the D&RG buildings would be helpful as well along with a plan showing how they were incorporated into the Como depot. Even better would be any historical documentation even alluding to the D&RG selling buildings to the South Park. (needle in a haystack I know, but between the Colorado Railroad Museum and the Union Pacific collection, a surprising amount of early D&RG , DSP&P and C&S records remain. If the Como depot was truly built from another, older building I would imagine that the C&S would have noted that on ICC valuations or other forms so that it would be taxed at a lower rate. ICC valuations and taxes drove much railroad record keeping and the dates buildings were built are usually part of the records)
My personal opinion (probably not worth one cent, let alone two) is that the Como depot was built in Como by the Denver South Park & Pacific using the same basic plans, materials and craftsmen as other South Park depots built around the same time. I agree that history is not set in stone and we are constantly rediscovering things that our predecessors already knew (whoever built the Como depot knew exactly when, where and how it was built) that have been lost to the mists of time. That said, these rediscoveries need to be back by sold evidence, which I do not see in this case. To me the available evidence shows that the Como depot was built in Como, by the DSP&P and spent the next 60 some od years being well used and abused by the railroad. I do not mean this as a slight to Mr. Droste, nor do I think him a fool for proposing, researching and putting forth his theory for us to discuss, I just don't feel that he has yet provided enough evidence to back his theory.
Jason Midyette
