An architect’s recommendation to raze the burned McComb railroad depot and put a new building in its place has left volunteers who ran the museum inside the historic structure disappointed but ready to “move forward.”
“It is incumbent upon us to do everything that we can to try to save that building,” McComb Railroad Depot Museum director Ralph Price told the McComb city board Tuesday. “It is a 120-year-old building that’s been on the National Register of Historic Places. It has added a lot to the historic district.”
Price said multiple people with engineering and construction backgrounds have told him it might be possible to save the south walls of the building, which was an old freight room where the museum and many of its now-salvaged artifacts were kept.
But architect Steve Cox inspected the building on Monday at the request of a committee overseeing its construction that’s made up of City Administrator David Myers, selectmen Ted Tullos and Shawn Williams, Price and museum board members Tom Catchings and Bruce Mullins. Cox said he believes it would be better for the city to start fresh.
In a letter to the committee, Cox gave multiple reasons for going with new construction, including a lower cost compared to building around the existing structure, and the fact that many contractors are only interested in new construction.
“What we really want to do is think about this letter, and if that’s the best approach, we certainly want to support that,” Price said. “It would be disappointing to us, to be perfectly honest with you, but at the same time in order to move forward, we want to do our part. We fully support getting the depot structure back in place and getting it back open.”
Selectman Devante Johnson said the board should take the letter under advisement, and the committee should me to discuss the findings of the letter. The board agreed.
Price said there was some good news on the museum front. He said artifact cleaning and restoration has gone ahead of schedule and museum officials were “very encouraged” by what they were able to save.
