Published: October 21, 2009 11:00 pm         

Director: Waynoka’s Harvey House restoration is better than expected

Restoring the old Harvey House and Santa Fe Depot in Waynoka proved to be more costly than first anticipated, but the project has turned out better than expected.

Sandie Olson, director of Waynoka Historical Society, discussed the renovations during the monthly Brown Bag Luncheon sponsored by Cher-okee Strip Regional Heritage Center.

“Costs for both projects were higher than we anticipated,” Olson said.

Olson said the original cost was estimated at $500,000 to renovate the historic Harvey House, where people traveling by train could stop and eat. The project eventually totaled $1.1 million, with some funds going to begin work on the Santa Fe Depot.

Today, the Harvey House hosts a railroad museum on the second floor, and the first floor is leased to El Charro Mexican Restaurant, but is renovated like the original building. Olson said a number of grants were received from Oklahoma Department of Transportation and Sarkeys Foundation, but most funding came from private donations. She showed slides of the construction in progress and in its restored condition.

The next phase will be a $300,000 renovation of the Santa Fe Depot interior.

Waynoka Historical Socie-ty hired an architect who dug through the paint in the old house and was able to replicate some of the original stenciling in one of the dining rooms. Olson said there were two dining rooms, and one was a formal dining room where men had to wear a coat and tie.

Both dining rooms were operated by the famous Harvey Girls, who lived on the premises. Harvey Houses were started by Fred Harvey in 1876 and were placed about every 200 miles along the Santa Fe rail line. Some were restaurants and hotels, and some were only restaurants like the Waynoka house, where the girls lived on the second floor.

“The city is helping us with the restrooms, which we couldn’t have done because of the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) requirements,” she said. “We also had to install an elevator to meet ADA requirements.”

A lot of paint removal was needed on the house, and all work had to be approved by the Oklahoma Historical Preservation office to be sure it met federal standards, Olson said, since some of the funding was with federal money.

Both the Harvey House and Santa Fe Depot will be 100 years old next year.

Harvey House stopped being a restaurant for train passengers in 1937. The railroad gave the building to Waynoka Historical Society in 1995, and the society began working on the renovation, finally opening it in 2000.