Restored and Repurposed
A treasured transportation landmark gets new life.
Thanks to the dogged persistence of a small group of rail and history buffs, a seminal part of EWU’s history — one that it shares with its hometown — has been preserved and repurposed for another century or more of service.
The Cheney Depot, a charming Spanish-colonial style structure completed in 1929, for decades served as a primary means of connecting generations of Eastern students to Spokane and the wider world. But after passenger service came to an end in 1971, and freight operations terminated a few years later, the abandoned station gradually fell into disrepair.
After the railroad announced plans to demolish it in 2014, a local group, the Cheney Depot Society, was formed to save it. Their audacious $2.2 million rescue plan involved first stabilizing and relocating the structure, then recruiting both professional and volunteer labor to refurbish it. When finished, the society proposed, the space would be a perfect home for select local retailers or other small businesses.
It wasn’t easy to keep things moving forward — particularly during the pandemic years — but earlier this spring Depot Society members announced that the structure, now fully restored and resituated at a new location on 1st Street, was ready to return to service.
At a grand opening event in April, Eastern alumnus Rick Mount, the society’s chair, told a packed house that the project demanded a lot from the volunteers, donors and other supporters. It’s been a “long process,” he said, but one that had been “a truly rewarding experience for all of us who have put in so much time and effort to make this dream come true.”
The depot, located on Union Street about two blocks from its original location, is once again serving both EWU students and community members, this time as the outpost of an artisanal coffee shop. The business, Eastern Coffee Roasters, will feature an outdoor patio and indoor dining areas from which coffee roasting will be on view. There will also be dedicated spaces for meetings and study sessions, the owners say.
