The WP Crossing: Then and Now

While I'm crazily posting 3d printed stuff, I might as well share a photo. You all might remember the photo of the WP railroad crossing taken by John Barriger in the mid-1930's. If you're not local (or haven't done wandering near Auzerais and Lincoln recently), take a look at how things have changed in... 80 years.

The discount furniture place on the right side of the tracks, a.k.a. Castlewood Wines, a.k.a. St. Claire Brewing, a.k.a. Virden Packing is still there ninety years after it was built, and the corrugated steel looks near-original. Behind it, apartments replace the former U.S. Products cannery warehouse. On the other side of the tracks, Sunsweet's packing house (former George Herbert) is long gone, replaced first by office buildings and now by San Jose Medical Group's offices. The little white building used for sack storage is also gone, as is the row of power lines along the right of way. There's little sign of the WP's crossing any more; the mismatched fence may be it, but it's hard to tell. And the former Standard Oil terminal on the immediate left, now a roofer, still has a substantial fence.

If you go wandering down this way, definitely check out the little house that got swallowed up by Virden Packing - it's barely visible over the fence. If you go into the furniture store in the former cannery, you'll see the half-eaten house serving as the office for the store.

[Left photo from the Barriger collection at the University of Missouri. The library's been kind enough to share many of their photos on Flickr; go check 'em out, and thank them for providing high detail scans! Right photo: my photo.]