by Justin Murphy, Democrat & Chronicle, September 17, 2014
Stan Slade isn't just rebuilding his train store that burned down on Memorial Day — he's finding a new way to tie the building itself to history. Slade's shop, Despatch Junction, was housed since 1987 at the former Penfield Depot in East Rochester, a passenger rail depot built in 1884, predating the village itself. The shop, and the building, burned to the ground in May, destroying thousands of model trains and accessories and dislodging the local collectors community for whom the shop was a gathering place.
After reviewing his insurance, Slade has decided to rebuild on the same site. He was before the East Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday night as part of the process. "I'm doing it because I want to, not because I have to — I should be retired on an island somewhere," he said. "(But) I had so many letters and things from people saying I should get back into it. And I miss it."
art of the charm of the old set-up was having a model train store in a former rail depot, directly adjacent to the railroad tracks. The location will be the same — no zoning variances are needed as long as Slade rebuilds within a year, the board decided Tuesday — and Slade has set upon another historical connection in replacing the old depot.
The new store will be about half the size of the former one, modeled on a Victorian-style rail station in Chelsea, Michigan, that he saw in a book of railway photographs. The depot in Michigan was built on land first purchased by a pair of 19th-century settlers who traveled west from Ontario County.
Promoting the hobby of model railroading and preserving the history of Rochester's railroads since 1996
