Following article is from the Pocono Record for Sunday, September 12, 2010. This is the latest in a series of articles we have posted about the historic train station in East Stroudsburg, PA. You can do a Search (top left) on "Dansbury Depot" to find other postings.
Dansbury Depot to make initial move in early October
By David Pierce
Pocono Record Writer
September 12, 2010 12:00 AM
The fire-damaged Dansbury Depot could make its first stop on a journey to a new home by the first week of October.
The $300,000 in secured grants — $100,000 from Monroe County commissioners and $200,000 from the ESSA Trust Foundation — will be enough to cover the cost of moving the structure to the East Stroudsburg borough parking lot adjacent to its current Crystal Street location.
That move will be temporary, to be followed by a permanent move later this year onto a cement foundation elsewhere on the parking lot. The first move will enable Troy Nauman — the developer who acquired the depot property — to begin constructing a new building on the site.
Before any of that can happen, East Stroudsburg Borough Council will have to approve a zoning change for the South Kistler Street parking lot and nearby Pennsylvania Railway Co. property from residential to business district commercial.
A rezoning hearing and council vote are scheduled for Sept. 21.
"We do have a number of steps to take legally and otherwise," said Cheryl Hayne of the Eastburg Community Alliance, which will operate the depot. "Almost around every corner there is another detail."
The alliance also must finalize an agreement to rent the new depot property from the borough. Though the Eastburg Alliance has enough money to complete the relocation and make exterior renovations, additional money will be needed for interior work, Hayne said. The group also hopes to restore a missing 30-foot section destroyed by fire.
"We're trying to get it as close to the condition the East Stroudsburg Station was in prior to the fire," she said.
The alliance will hold a fundraising drawing for a 16-square-foot quilt depicting early days of the 1864 station. The group also is selling limited edition prints of the station by artist Gary Kresge. Both are on display at the alliance office, 1 Washington St.
The alliance plans to use the building to display historic photos and other artifacts of borough and local train history.
"It will be kind of a living museum," Haye said.