Southern Pacific Depot Colors
The following is a compilation of newspaper reports from 1883 to 1916 I have found that refer to paint colors on SP depots and other buildings, along with additional observations on this subject.
GRAY DEPOTS
Newspaper articles suggest that gray (sometimes called "slate") was a
widely-used standard color for SP depots before the adoption of Colonial
Yellow.
Three reports below raise the possibility the gray color was adopted in 1883-1884:
September 25, 1883 The Silver State (Winnemucca, Nevada) - new colors of water tank more pleasing than the somber brown previously used on railroad buildings. [SP water tanks were commonly surrounded by square-sided housings at that time]
August 30, 1884 Kern County Californian (Bakersfield) - "The railroad has adopted a different and nondescript color for their depots and other buildings along the line ... The sides, up to a certain distance from the ground, have been sanded. The cars are, we learn, to be given the same color."
November 18, 1884 Los Angeles Times, dispatch from Ontario dated Nov. 13 - "The new freight shed has just been painted and is a wonderful improvement on the average S.P.R.R. houses. The orthodox dingy red of railroad fame has given place in this instance to an elegant stone color handsomely trimmed and sanded."
The following citation indicates the SP painted depots and other right of way buildings in California gray up to 1905:
July 27, 1905 Inyo Register (Bishop) (3:3) - "The Southern Pacific depot at Laws, together with the agent’s house and all the warehouses, have been repainted. The outside is a slate color and the roofs are red. The change greatly improves the looks of the buildings, and it is reported that all of the company buildings on the line will be painted a uniform color."
Some articles from 1906 to 1909 that reported SP depots were being painted in a new yellow scheme also mentioned the previous gray color:
February 23, 1906 Solano County Republican (Suisun) (p.3), originally from the Benecia Herald – "The Southern Pacific Railroad Company is giving its buildings all along the line a new coat of paint. The color resembles the poppy, California’s state flower, and the result is surely a contrast for the better with the former dull lead color. The ferry slip and depot present a cheerful appearance."
September 27, 1907 The Gridley Herald – "The Southern Pacific painting gang under the direction of Foreman Jenks, is giving the depot of that company in this place a coat of color. The color scheme is radically different from that heretofore pursued by the railroad company in decorating and preserving their buildings. In the past the property of the company had been painted a dingy shade of slate or brown, but this time the tint is of a yellow shade and much lighter than formerly."
January 30, 1909 The Livermore Herald (2:1) – "The Southern Pacific painting crew has been at work this week repainting the depot. The color has been changed from gray to yellow."
December 17, 1909 The Folsom Telegraph (1:4) – "The Southern Pacific Company has a crew of painters here painting the depot building. The color has been changed from the familiar slate to a bright yellow."
First-hand inspections I’ve made of the following depots revealed that the first layer of paint on the walls was gray (depot built dates in parenthesis):
Bena (1891)
Fillmore (1887)
Santa Paula (1887)
Montalvo (1887)
San Luis Obispo freight house (1894)
Montalvo is interesting in that the sand-coated band on the walls was painted a noticeably darker gray than the walls above the band. For Fillmore, I could not see any difference between the gray of the sand-coated band and the walls above.
SP tool houses preserved by the South Coast Historical Railroad Society Museum in Santa Clara, California and the Southern Oregon Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Medford, Oregon also apparently had gray paint for the first layer on their walls.
GREEN DEPOTS
July 21, 1906 Meced Express – "The Espee had developed a yellow streak,
or rather the local depot of that corporation had donned a coat of bright
yellow, and no longer will the old familiar green, which has been the
distinguishing feature of all Southern Pacific buildings, meet the eye."
[the Merced depot had been built in 1900]
YELLOW DEPOTS
News articles indicate the Southern Pacific began painting depots Colonial
Yellow with brown trim in 1903 in Nevada and in 1906 in California. I have
never found a description of an SP depot painted yellow prior to these
years.
It appears that the SP made a major effort in 1906-1907 to repaint depots in
California in the new scheme.
1903-1904 Nevada newspapers references:
June 5, 1903 Nevada State Herald (Wells) – "The railroad painters have finished painting the S.P. depot here. The new color, a light yellow, with black and brown trimmings, greatly improves the appearance of the property."
October 8, 1903 Central Nevadan (Battle Mountain) – "The S.P. painters and carpenters are in town. The painters have painted the depot yellow."
October 22, 1903 Central Nevadan – "The S.P. painters have painted the depot, section house and other company buildings yellow which gives them quite an attractive appearance."
May 20, 1904 Weekly Independent (Elko) (3:3) – "Work on the depot building and grounds took a lively spurt this morning. A crew of painters arrived and soon had the roof painted red and then went to work on the outside and inside. ... The carpenters are nearly through with their part of the work and it will not be many days before Elko will have one of the best depot buildings in the State. It will be painted two shades of yellow which will give it a handsome appearence and make it ornamental as well as useful."
The Nevada depot paintings in 1903-1904 by the Southern Pacific preceeded the adoption in late 1904 of the first joint SP-UP common standards. What influence UP practice had on the SP in regards to paint colors for buildings prior to the joint standards, I don’t know.
1906-1907 California newspaper references:
March 24, 1906 The Dixon Tribune – "The depot premises have changed their appearance and are now looming up in the glory of a new covering of yellow and orange paint, a coloring that had been adopted throughout this division."
One wonders if the writer of the above citiation was misinterpreting the colors of a two-tone yellow scheme or if in fact orange was a color used on the Dixon depot. The reference in the Solano County Republican of Feb. 23, 1906 (previously referred to in the section about gray paint) stated that the new color of the Benecia depot "resembles the poppy," which brings to mind an orange color.
June 1, 1906 Solano County Republican (Suisun) – "The Southern Pacific Company is having many notable improvements about the local railway yards. All the buildings about the yards are being newly painted in a shade of yellow, the new color adopted by the company for all buildings along its lines, including depot buildings."
July 21, 1906 Meced Express – "The Espee had developed a yellow streak, or rather the local depot of that corporation had donned a coat of bright yellow..."
April 26, 1907 Lindsey Gazette (1:2) – "The S.P. Co. has a crew of painters at work on the depot at this place. A bright cream color is being applied to the outside and the inside of the building is also to be painted."
April 27, 1907 Galt Weekly Gazette (3:1) – "A gang of painters are embellishing the railway depot and other S.P. Company buildings at this point. Yellow will be the new color of the structures when the job is done."
July 18, 1907 Tulare County Times (Visalia) – "A painting crew is expected to arrive in Visalia shortly to begin the painting of the local S.P. depot. The new color will be buff with light brown trimmings. These are the new colors adopted by the railroad company and which most of the depots in the valley are being painted."
The July 17, 1907 Visalia Delta had a report similar to the above.
August 7, 1907 Truckee Semi-Weekly Republican – " ... the company has repainted all its buildings between Reno and Gold Run the standard colors of yellow and brown trimmings."
September 27, 1907 The Gridley Herald – "The Southern Pacific painting gang under the direction of Foreman Jenks, is giving the depot of that company in this place a coat of color. The color scheme is radically different from that heretofore pursued by the railroad company in decorating and preserving their buildings. In the past the property of the company has been painted a dingy shade of slate or brown, but this time the tint is a yellow shade and much lighter than formerly."
No news reports of depots being painted yellow could be found for 1908. The recession that began in 1907 may have temporarily halted the repainting program. News reports of depot repainting resumed in 1909:
January 30, 1909 The Livermore Herald (2:1) – "The Southern Pacific painting crew has been at work this week repainting the depot. The color has been changed from gray to yellow."
December 17, 1909 The Folsom Telegraph (1:4) – "The Southen Pacific Company has a crew of painters here painting the depot building. The color has been changed from the familiar slate to a bright yellow."
YELLOW PAINT IN OREGON
A review of 1906 and 1907 newspapers for a number of towns in Oregon with
SP depots failed to find any mention of depots being repainted yellow, only a
reference to this color for a new section camp at Reuben [name changed to
Kohler in late 1907 or early 1908]:
July 20, 1906 The Glendale News (3:2) – "A great transformation has taken place at Rueben siding, where the S.P. has built a bunk house, tool shed, boarding house and section house for the convenience of the section men who will have their headquarters at that place instead at Tunnel 5. The buildings are all painted yellow and present a very inviting appearance."
It’s possible that the repainting of depots to yellow may have occured later in Oregon than in California.
RED ROOFS
Two newpaper accounts tell of gray depots having "red" roofs. The accounts
suggest that red – or perhaps mineral red or boxcar red – was a standard
roof color for gray depots:
April 5, 1894 Berkeley Herald – "The depot at Berkeley station opposite the Herald office received its regulation coat of red paint on the roof today."
The Berkeley Herald in the previous week (March 29) reported that painters have been painting all the depots along the line from Sixteenth Street to Berkeley.
July 27, 1905 Inyo Register (3:3) – "The Southern Pacific depot at Laws, together with the agent’s house and all the warehouses, have been repainted. The outside is a slate color and the roofs are red. The change greatly improves the looks of the buildings, and it is reported that all of the company buildings on the line will be painted a uniform color."
When the SP started introduced Colonial Yellow for the wall color, roofs apparently continued to be painted red:
May 20, 1904 Weekly Independent (Elko, Nevada) (3:3) – "Work on the depot building and grounds took a lively spurt this morning. A crew of painters arrived and soon had the roof painted red..." [see the section under 1903-1904 Nevada newspapers for remainder of wording]
August 8, 1907 Tulare County Times (Visalia) (p. 2) – red paint for roof of the Visalia SP depot.
July 12, 1912 The Morning Echo (Bakersfield) – "The Southern Pacific Company has built and is now completing a large comodious station at McFarland. ...The conventional red roof, colonial yellow body and light brown trimmings describe the outside painting; and a six-foot belt has been sanded around the base of the outside."
February 25, 1916 Mojave Press – "The Southern Pacific Depot and Harvey House is being painted in regulation SP buff and the roof will be red."
In addition, March 1910 SP drawings for a "Greek Cross"-style shelter shed call for the color "Metallic" for the roof. Bill Wullenjohn has concluded from the paint specification number in the drawings that Metallic was a boxcar red color.
I have no information about when Moss Green was adopted as the standard roof color on the SP.
—John Sweetser
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 9:06 PM
12 Comments:
From: "Larry Mullaly" lmullaly@jeffnet.org
I have a small piece of interest (and another color) to add to John Sweetser's superb compilation of references to SP depot paint schemes. Referring to the Medford station house, the Medford [Oregon] Mail, August 18, 1894 states:
"The painters are doing a fine job the the depot building. The outside walls for a height of eight feet, together with the platform railings, have been sanded to prevent idle whittlers from wearing out their knife blades. It will also have a tendency to prevent persons from making a bulletin board of the depot. The interior of the office and waiting room are painted a light pink, and the freight room is white-washed."
From: "Kevin Bunker" mikadobear45@yahoo.com
Time for me to chime in here. All of John Sweetser's and Larry M's references precisely confim the average number of my forensic findings on surviving depots in Northern California and Central Nevada, and the relative dates of use assigned-through-extrapolation freight, passenger, and combination depot paint schemes employed by the CPRR and the SPCo between the very late 1870s and circa 1910.
The CPRR may have used – only on a few of its earliest depots circa 1863-1870 a duo-tone light color scheme that may have been a pale yellow or straw tint on the body or maybe even a dove gray. There is no evidence to confirm or deny either possibility but for two photos of Sacramento's first formal passenger depot and ticket office that briefly stood adjacent to the wharf roughly adjacent to the douthwest corner of the subsequent covered passenger depot represented by today's replica in Old Sacramento. The initial formal passenger depot and ticket office may have been picked up and incorporated into its larger replacement structure.
That said, with the construction of more depots in the 1870s, the so called red or "brown" color scheme is launche trim was usually a rose-beige color with white sash. Shingled roofs in this period were an unknown color, though red or brown, possibly of a darker or richer tone than the depot body color, seems stylistically likely by the popular taste standards of the era.
Next, circa 1875-1885, comes the two-tone olive and gray-green color scheme (presently worn by the replica CPRR Passenger Station) in Old Sacramento. This is the first time that sanded wainscoats appear, the sand being applied through the entire height of the darker green color band which extends from ground level to a height of about 6 feet.
NOTE: The one intrusion into this color scheme period is the construction and painting of the post 1879 Arcade Depot in Sacramento above 2nd & I streets, which always appears (in photos) to wear a lighter two tone (or maybe three-tone) plus white color scheme that suggests that colonial yellow and brown arrived earlier than we suspect, but only in this isolated instance. Or, the depot was the first to introduce a multi-tint gray color scheme that was also isolated. Either version would have matched well with its Gothic Revival architectural style.
The gray bodied depots with white trim and red roofs coincides with the Huntington administration of the CP and SPCo. This gray color is indeed a slate color and is quite dark. Again, sanding the exterior wainscoat in this gray period follows the same relative height. However, what some observed as a darker gray in this area was in fact color alteration from the sand itself. The gray over the entire depot body, regardless of the town, was the same tint over all exterior walls. The addition of varigated sand simply made the lower walls appear a tad darker.
The arrival of the so-called Colonial Yellow scheme circa 1905 or 1910, depending on location, always coincieded with the richer yellow ("orange") which was, in fact, a rich yellow ochre that we call "amber" and the addition of body sand. Some window sash in images of a few Oregon & California depots appear to be dark red; otherwise white sash continues to be the norm systemwide. Red (or freight car "metallic") color-dipped shingle roofs in this period makes sense according to typical residential Colonia Revival popular color standards of the same era. So, too, does the introduction of the rich green shingle roofs circa 1915. NOTE: the use of amber/yellow ochre on the exterior sanded wainscoats seems to dissapate and then disappear from the SP system coincident to the Great Depression after 1930, and was probably dropped due to the expense of application of an unnecessary extra color.
—Kevin Bunker, Portland, Oregon
From: Hsweetser@aol.com
Subject: Southern Pacific Depot Colors/Sand Coats
This is actually the third reference I've learned of that states the sand-coated bands on depots were meant to discourage knife carvers. The other two:
December 21, 1904 The Morning Echo (Bakersfield) – "The columns supporting the awning and the passenger depot have been painted and sanded - a good protection against jackknife carvers."
The above citation is referring to the Bakersfield SP passenger depot. While the building was constructed of brick, the arcade in front of it running along the tracks was originally supported by wood columns.
In a post to the Espee Yahoo Group on April 15, 1999, W. L. Hoss ("Bill") stated this: "The use of sand mixed in the paint, as they [the Centerville Depot website] describe it must have been common at one time. I know that the Missouri Pacific did at the turn of the century to discourage people waiting for trains from whittling on the woodwork."
So, assumptions that the purpose of the sanded treatment was to toughen the paint against abrasion from baggage wagons, trucks, etc. may not have validity.
—John Sweetser
From: "John Snyder" johnsnyder@onetel.com
The only comment I'd add to all of the foregoing is that I don't believe that it was the varigated color of the sand that made the lower walls appear darker, but rather the difference in reflectivity caused by the rougher surface. As for the sanded walls being designed to foil the knife-wielders, that was probably an unintended side benefit, the real reason for the application being to give the lower walls added protection from the bumps and scrapes of baggage and freight; it was never carried high enough to be proof against vandalism – any determined person of average height could easily reach the unsanded wall surfaces above to carve. If you've ever done paint analysis scrapings through those sanded layers, you'll know just how tough a surface that was/is.
—John Snyder
From: "Kevin Bunker" mikadobear45@yahoo.com
Subject: Southern Pacific Depot Colors/Sand Coats
"May not have validity" is not the appropriate reponse, since both John Snyder and I – working together on several past depots restorations projects – found historic references in 19th century trade publications for sanding methods and methodology that advised blown-on sand coatings for toughening paint.
These mentioned that railroads and marine terminals found that unsanded surfaces suffered more from baggage and express wagons collisions and also from human vagrants. The former advisory was specific enough to infer that sanded paint lessened abrasions and gouges from express wagons and handtrucks. The latter reference seems to also support the theory that vagrants tended to be general nuisances and probably vandals, but does not describe these specifically as adults. A six foot high sanded wainscoat was as much a hindrence to pocket, kack or skinning knife wielding kids as well as adults.
It is not as if the sanded paint eliminated contusions and major dents in wood surfaces from any collision. Indeed, there's plenty of evidence to the contrary on a host of older Espee system depots. Sand, however, so toughened the paint film that it did not easily pop-off the wall when hit by a blunt or metal object. And believe you me, John is right: when running cratered paint samples, our general practice has been to bring several extra packages of fresh scalpels or X-acto blades and sandpapers to work on known or expected surfaces with sanded paint. The historic layers of sanded paint usually numbers between three and six layers and typically exhausts a surgically sharp blade within a few minutes. It's nasty stuff!
—Kevin Bunker
From: "Wendell Huffman" wendellhuffman@hotmail.com
How was the sand applied?
Mixed into the paint I would think it would tend to settle out and require frequent stirring.
Blown on after the surface was painted would seem to require careful attention to drying time of the paint, and as the paint dried less than uniformly, it might result in uneven application.
And for that matter, was the paint brushed on or blown?
Was this whole adoption of a sanded paint a consequence of the development of compressed air/painting technology.
I am unfamiliar with buildings being painted and sanded now days. What was so wrong with the technique that it has [apparently] been abandoned.
And, one other thing ... one of the toughest and perhaps most dangerous things we can do as historians is to assign motivation for something done or adopted by someone in the past. I hardly know why I do some of the things I do; it is nothing but speculation to say why something was done long ago by someone now long-dead. Perhaps in the case of company policy decisions it is possible to reconstruct their rationale from documentation. But sometimes the rationale was adopted after the fact – to justify something that was decided for entirely unrelated reasons. I can imagine sanded paint finish was proposed and tried for one reason, and subsequently found to provide some previously unexpected benefit. I can imagine that a motive for sanded paint as reported in a local newspaper was more reflective of what a painter thought (and said) about it than what was discussed and decided up the line in San Francisco.
—Wendell
From: "Kevin Bunker" mikadobear45@yahoo.com
The technique and desire of sanding paint fell out of favor – it appears – sometime around 1910-1920, which aligns with the availability of commercially premixed oil-enamel paints that came to market cheaply.
The sand was usually applied by a bellows apparatus, which puffed the sand particles into the freshly-painted walls. Advertisements for these devices were oft seen in trade publications and in the catalogues of some of the leading paint and pigment manufacturers of the latter 19th century. The technique and popularity dates back quite aways into the 19th and late 18th century, and also was popular in other applications (even residential uses) for "rusticating" paint finishes that sought to imitate stone and ashlar construction with wood products.
–Kevin Bunker
From: "Jim Wilke" woodburner@earthlink.net
I saw the sanding process in action at Grove Farm, Hawai'i. The plantation houses were largely late 19th century structures, sanded to protect the wood from rot and insect damage.
Portions of one building were being repainted; the painters had buckets of sand and threw it by the handful onto wet paint. They picked up a handful of sand, tossed it at the surface from a foot away, and went back for the next handful. There was a great deal of wasted sand, which could be swept back and reused if the porch floor was clean, as it is at Grove Farm.
The use of sand for ornamental finishes can be seen at Mount Vernon, Virginia, where the 18th century wooden architecture imitates stone blocks, with sand thrown into the paint to create a stone like finish.
Its probable that SP depots were sanded for a number of reasons, primarily practical, of which newspaper reporters commented upon a favorite.
—Jim
From: "Henry Bender" hbender@sjpc.org
John Sweetser et al.,
Thanks for this. I'll send you, John S, your 11/12/03 essay on this subject and Bill's 11/15/03 reply, where, among other things, Bill wrote:
Regarding the use of the darker yellow color on the lower walls of SP's Colonial Yellow painted depots. John Snyder, formerly of Caltrans, did the paint analysis of Millbrae and a number of other depots for Caltrans, and also did other depots' paint analysis when he ran his own business called PS Preservation Services. ... Regarding whether the darker lower wall color was due to the sand in the paint or whether there was in fact a darker shade of yellow paint used, John Snyder had this to say: " ... the fact remains that they were both sanded and a darker ochre color; that's been a constant on virtually every wood frame depot we've sampled ... "
Also: correct "South Coast Historical Railroad Society Museum in Santa Clara, California" to "South Bay Historical Railroad Society Museum in Santa Clara, California."
—Henry
See, Historic Paint Colors.
Stew said...
I cannot thank you enough for sharing this marvelous architectural pieces of history. I am a student researching ... and there are just about so much to find in your page ... Kudos!
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