This article by Trish Rudder was originally published for the Morgan Messenger on March 7, 2023. Photo of Lantz Superintendent Kevin Goode by Trish Rudder.
Train Depot interior is close to the finish line
The Berkeley Springs Train Depot, one of the prestigious historic buildings in town, has been undergoing a facelift and is in the final stages of restoration.
Lantz Construction Superintendent Kevin Goode has been working on the depot interior since about May 2022. He began his work at the depot with his former company, Building Solutions of Hagerstown, Md. that was owned by Lantz, he said.
Goode has been working quite a few months on his own, said Bath Town Recorder Susan Webster who chairs the Depot committee.
“He treats the work he’s doing in the train depot as if it was his own,” she said.
Goode said his boss [Pete Harman, Director of Specialty & Industrial Projects] came to Berkeley Springs last week and he “was very, very impressed” with Goode’s work, he said.
After the remediation on the interior was finished last year, Goode’s firm was hired and he began the restoration process.
He said the 2007 plans of what the interior should look like did not fit with what he saw when he walked in last May.
“The plans did not coincide with what I saw,” he said. “I had to mimic it and make it as historical as possible as it was.”
“I’m good at visualization,” Goode said last Friday.
He said his dad could fix anything and that taught him a lot, and he’s always wanted to be like his dad.
The individual tongue-in-groove pine bead board/wainscot that is newly painted green was put in place one at a time. He said because the floor is not level, Goode had to place the “level line” up top. He said any trim that had to be replaced was made by hand.
“It was a painstaking process,” he said.
He said he is getting to be well known in town since he’s been working here so long. People are friendly, he said, and ask how the depot is shaping up.
Goode’s parents came to Berkeley Springs last week to see his work in the depot and he took them to lunch at Charlotte’s Café, the restaurant that is owned by John Mason, the president of the town’s Historic Landmarks Commission.
Mason said last week that Goode’s “level of detail” he is making in the depot is impressive.
“He’s very thorough in the job,” Mason said. “He’s a take-charge leader.”
Goode said being able to recreate the ticket window was the most challenging but the most rewarding. Using the old-fashioned window weights was very time consuming, he said.
“I had to look at the finished product that was going in the wall and it had to fit perfectly.”
He said he did research on what was inside the depot. The baggage and ticket window sashes were made by a carpenter through Hicksville Planing Mill out of Clear Spring, Md. When the mill gets behind on jobs, they hire out the job to trusted individuals, Goode said.
Webster works closely with Goode. She told the Bath Town Council on February 21 that the walls were painted and they matched the colors the original depot had, with dark beige above the green bead board/wainscot, and all the trim is dark brown.
She said restoring the maple floors in the ladies waiting room and baggage room will cost about $7,500. Some of the floors had to be replaced because of water damage, she said.
Goode said when he tried to restore the tile in the ladies’ bathroom, the old tile pieces fell off, so he had to replace it with wallboard.
He said he was glad he was able to keep the tile in the men’s room and the section he had to replace matches the old tile.
“I’m glad I did save it,” he said.
This job will go into Goode’s portfolio, he said. “It is my first remodel of an historic building.”
Goode said he will be very happy when the Depot’s grand opening is here. Webster said it is being planned for late May.