La Mesa Train Depot

As we begin the season of Fall, my family is adjusting to a new season of life! Steve started working on the night crew at Albertsons about a month ago. He goes into work at 10PM at gets home at 7AM. Although it is nice to know he's making money while I'm sleeping, the mornings have been kind of complicated. By the time Steve gets home, he's ready for bed. He needs to sleep early because he also works during the day and early evenings at Journey. So when I hear my front door open at 7AM, the boys and I need to be up, dressed and ready to get out of the house. There's no way Steve could get any sleep with us in the house, so...almost every morning, I pack the kids in the car, and just kind of sit there until I figure out what to do. Sometimes it's nice enough outside at 7AM to go to the park...but sometimes it's too wet and cold still. I try to do things that don't cost money...sometimes that's hard.

This morning when Steve got home, I rushed out the door with Cameron. Riley isn't feeling great, so he stayed with daddy for a nap in his crib. I took Cameron to Cosmos, because I really needed coffee, and then we decided to walk up and down La Mesa BLVD. We walked by some neat antique shops and saw disney characters, we walked over the trolley tracks, walked by Camerons favorite hang out, The Yogurt Mill, and then headed back to the car. On our stroll back to the car, we saw that cool old La Mesa Train Depot...you know...it's the one you always pass by when you're on Spring Street. Well...Cameron LOVES trains...like...A LOT! So...since we had time to kill, we stopped by and checked it out. I never realized how much history there is...just a few blocks from my house. After taking a few pictures, Cameron and I came home to find some info on the La Mesa Train Depot. It was very interesting. Here are some really cool facts:

The La Mesa Depot Museum is La Mesa, California's oldest building in its original form and is the sole surviving San Diego and Cuyamaca Railway Station in existence. The building you see today on the corner of Spring Street and La Mesa Boulevard in downtown La Mesa has an colorful history.

In 1885 the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroads extended service to San Diego. At that time, the locomotives burned coal and access to the wharf to load coal from ships was critical. The section of the San Diego and Cuyamaca Eastern Railway extending through La Mesa Springs was originally planned to join with the Santa Fe or Southern Pacific Railroads at Needles, but, due to the mountainous terrain, never got past Foster, just east of Lakeside. Transportation past that point to Julian was accomplished via stagecoach, at a price thirteen times that of railway travel.

It was in 1888 that the railway came to La Mesa Springs and in 1894 the original station in La Mesa was constructed, its first name being the Allison Station. In 1915, the small original building was moved across the tracks and expanded to its current size.

The railway served the residents of the area in a variety of ways and the station was truly the center of town to its people. The City of La Mesa and its environs certainly would not have progressed as far or as quickly without the help of the trains. Students used to commute to San Diego High School for their classes, the alternative being a one-hour ride in a buggy. The many lemon farmers appreciated and took advantage of both their proximity to a railroad and their access to the flume for irrigation. The flume had been constructed in 1887 and brought water down from Cuyamaca Lake.

In 1928, passenger service stopped on this section of the what was, by then, a branch line of the San Diego and Arizona Railway. Freight service continued, though several floods and the construction of Gillespie Field for air travel had shortened the end of the working line back to El Cajon by 1943. In 1954 Spring Street was widened and the La Mesa Depot building was sold to the Lakeside Chamber of Commerce for one dollar, to be used as part of a "western town." The city of Lakeside never used it, and shortly thereafter a woman by the name of Flossie Beadle purchased it and ran an antique store and museum out of the building. After she passed away, the structure was used as a worm farm and chicken coop over the years and fell into disrepair.

In 1974, the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association located and purchased the remains of the building, again for one dollar. In 1980-1981 the building was returned to its original site and, using money from a federal grant, was restored to its 1915 condition. Preservation was truly a labor of love for volunteers of the San Diego Railroad Museum, with help from members of the La Mesa Historical Society.

Today the Railroad Museum owns and maintains the building, and the City of La Mesa owns and maintains the grounds and land beneath it. The public is admitted free to the La Mesa Depot Museum for tours on weekend afternoons. Visitors can inspect the steam locomotive and string of freight cars on the nearby track and pass through the ticket/waiting area and view the telegrapher's station and a small exhibit area in the baggage room. This building and its past are a fascinating look at a bit of small-town railroading from yesteryear and its importance to the community it served.


Me and Cameron had a great time exploring this morning. Hopefully we can find something equally as fun and educational tomorrow!