Hold the Train

The historic Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Depot, built in 1928 in Everglades City, is facing the wrecking ball, with owner Bill Odrey facing opposition from the City of Everglades and Collier County - in addition to his own financial woes. But recent developments have given the beleaguered owner hopes that he can get the Depot back on track.

Odrey had the Florida Public Archaeology Network and a decking manufacturer on property Thursday, October 12, in hopes of coming up with a plan to save the historic Depot, one of 47 sites on the Historic and Archaeological Preservation Board’s list of historic sites in Collier County.

"Can I save the building or do I have to sell it?” Bill Odrey speculates. "You can only hold out so long with personal finances when you're self-employed. You know, we got no funding for the hurricanes, no PPE funds, nothing. So it's just been like my own financial resources...they start getting depleted after so long.”

Odrey was operating the Depot prior to hurricanes Irma (2017) and Ian (2022).

"It's been a while,” Odrey said. “Because it was just everything that was going on between Covid and the hurricanes, getting supplies, whatever you could find."

But it appears help is on the way in the person of Jimmy Wear, technical sales lead for WearDeck, a composite decking company that is owned by Owens Corning. In addition to donating decking material and installation, Wear is starting a GoFundMe account for the Depot.

"I'm going to do a quick little GoFundMe page,” Wear said. "I've got all the damage photos and stuff. I'm just doing this on my own for Bill. I figure I can at least do that."

"WearDeck is going to help with fixing the deck and docks,” Odrey said. "This whole place is concrete. It's solid. It just needs somebody to care. I actually painted the whole building myself. I rolled on the paint, did all these windows myself. I just worked and worked on it. And it's still good. It just needs to be touched up. It's an old building. I'm trying to find somebody to hold the financing just to get things caught up and we'll be okay. So that's the plan. I just need to find a lender, a temporary lender, and that's it. Good to go. The building can be fixed up easily and we could be operating on the deck with caterers. But the people that said demolition, there's something not right with that. How can they say that?”

Odrey received a Declaration of Dangerous Building letter from the City of Everglades code enforcement on August 18. The letter stated that “Immediate repairs up to and including demolition of the structure are required.”

Odrey said that he has two suitors for the property who have given him an October 31 deadline.

“The deals are going to be over for the companies wanting to buy the property on October 31st. I would rather continue the mission than sell the property. But I just can't keep waiting.”

The Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) team feels this may be their last chance to create a permanent record of the historic train depot, given the demolition threats.

“We are here doing photogrammetry or 3D scanning of this historical building in order to preserve it digitally,” said Natalie De La Torre-Salas, archaeologist with the FPAM, "just in case the building gets more deteriorated or it ends up being demolished. Hopefully, that will not be the case, but it is still important to have different options to preserve this, whether the physical, tangible heritage site like this or, you know, remotely so that people can access it virtually."

De La Torre-Salas was surprised at the size of the Depot. She sees it as potentially a huge public asset for Everglades City. 

“We're going to try to scan all of this,” De La Torre-Salas said. "It's a very big building. We had the opportunity of going inside the building. It was even more shocking to see just how huge and all of the incredible potential that this building has to be used for the community here at Everglades City. It has a lot of potential. And it's a very important historical building. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was one of the reasons why this is so important. Not many people know that Everglades City was the first county seat of Collier County. So this building tells a story about when Everglades City was opened to the rest of the world. It was through this train depot, through this railroad, that people first got access to Everglades City. So losing this is losing part of the story. So by 3D scanning this entire building, which is like taking photographs that measure the distance between the laser and the actual building, we will be able to create a 3D image that will allow us to keep studying about it, doing public engagement, preserving it digitally."

De La Torre-Salas was surprised at the condition of the building but sees its potential.

"I would say that it was pretty shocking just to see the impact that Hurricane Ian had on it,” she said, "because obviously, you can tell that it's not being used from the outside. But going inside you can still see that it's a very resilient building. It has withstood a lot through the years.”

Does De La Torre-Salas think the Depot can be saved?

"Oh, definitely,” she said confidently. "It definitely requires a lot of investment, a lot of collaborations and partnerships with Bill and Everglades City and Collier County and any other community-led organization. But it definitely has the potential to be a space to use for the community here for different events. It has a lot of potential. You know, it was a train depot. It was a restaurant. Who knows what else it could be, but it definitely has the potential to be molded to whatever it is that the people, the local residents would like it to be used for."

It’s hard for De La Torre-Salas to believe that such a tangible link to the past could be demolished in less than a month.

‘It's definitely very frustrating and upsetting when local laws are not well equipped to protect our heritage,” she said. “Unfortunately, once we lose this, this is a non-renewable resource. We won't have the 1920s train depot ever again. There's no turning back. Losing that is losing a tangible link to the past and to the story and the local identity of Everglades City. So if you want to empower local communities, if you want to be able to tell the story about Everglades City, you must be able to make the past relevant to the present. And preserving, recovering, and restoring this sort of historical building will definitely have good results overall. It could be a good tourist attraction. It can boost the local economy. We can do a lot of historical tours, kayak tours. This can be used for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts. There's endless possibilities of all the events and activities that can be done in this building."

So what does De La Torre-Salas think it will take to save the building?

"First of all, we need to support Bill in acquiring the funding that he needs by October 30th so that he can save this building. And then after that, try to continuously support however we can so that he can get the resources he needs and make the partnerships and networks he needs to restore the building. This building was also used by FEMA after hurricanes happened. So we already know that this building has had a use for emergency aid and recovery, post-disaster recovery. It is a very relevant building. We just need to as a community, and mostly Everglades City and Collier County, pay close attention to the importance of protecting and preserving and investing in this sort of heritage."

So what role can the Florida Public Archaeology Network play in saving the Depot?

“We are a statewide organization,” De La Torre-Salas said, "so we're all over the state of Florida. Our mission is to promote study and facilitate the understanding and the protection of Florida's archaeological heritage. So all of us work directly for Florida Atlantic University, which is our South office. I have the honor and the pleasure of working in all five counties of Southwest Florida: Lee, Glades, Hendry, Charlotte, and Collier. So our role is, whenever a member of the community or any other person wants or needs assistance or wants to educate or help preserve any sort of historical or archaeological heritage, we are there trying to give a hand and support as best as to our capacities."

Natalie De La Torre-Salas feels the situation with the Depot is dire.

"I really, really hope that everybody that is seeing all of the good new wave of news and media coverage of this whole situation with the train depot will get motivated to support Bill in acquiring the funds. I think that is the main priority. And obviously, I do not know what the future holds, but I do hold the hope that it will be preserved and people will be able to help out on this mission."

“Where are you going to get a building like this?” Odrey muses. "Anyplace in South Florida? I mean all you hear is the waves. Then an alligator swims by, porpoises swim by. I just saw a huge school of mullet - thousands of fish. I want to save this building."

A Go Fund Me to Save the Depot has been set up at https://gofund.me/b2dc3b7e.