[CBQ] 2-23-22 Galesburg depot recollections

["Jim G" <G4Trains@gmail.com>]

23 FEB 2022         First, thanks for the many responses.  I have compiled them below, to have everything in one email.  Our NRHS chapter meets in Northwest Arkansas.  Responding to the request for my phone number 479-444-8991.  Also, I will send an email to Mr. Wilson, as suggested.

    One bit of information I had not known until your replies is that it was a Grier’s.  I believe it was 2016, when I was a new member of NRHS, I passed through Limon, Colo. going to the summer convention in Denver.  Among the information display panels in the Limon restored depot museum was one about the Grier chain.

    >From your responses, it seems that the restaurant may have morphed over time.

 

    Hi Jim.  Bud Linroth here.  I was only in Grier's in the Galesburg depot once.  That was in 1966 or 1967.  It stood on the front of the depot across the room from the ticket office.  In the early years, I believe it was in a separate building attached or very close to the SW corner of the depot. There is a blueprint on page 339 of my Quincy Branch book that shows it as a open counter in 1929.  The Galesburg Library has a copy of the book you can check out.  Greg Baumgarner did a presentation several years ago on the Grier Restaurants.  I believe Burlington, Iowa is in the process of restoring theirs.

    Harold Ziehr who lives in Wataga can probably tell you more.  Maybe if you give me your cell phone number to me I will give it to Harold and he can give you a call.  Good luck with that article.

R. W. "Bud" Linroth, Board of Directors member, Galesburg Railroad Museum, 309-368-1807

 

Archie Hayden:  If I recall correctly, when you walked into the main lobby through the trackside doors, there was a Grier’s restaurant in the back on the left side.  Seems it had glass partitions and a counter with stools.  May have been small tables to serve 2 diners. 

 

Fred Hilgenberg:   There was a short article on the station in the local paper in 2014. Perhaps the author may have some insight:

https://www.galesburg.com/story/news/2014/06/29/seminary-st-depots-gone-not/36931933007/

    Tom Wilson is a local historian. Write to him at wilsont29@comcast.net or at The Register-Mail, 140 S. Prairie St., Galesburg, IL 61401

    Also, perhaps, one of the contributors to this Towns and Nature Blogspot article on the depot would have some recollection. Some of the names are familiar from other railroad forums, so they should still be around.

http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2015/12/galesburg-il-cb-depot.html

 

Hol Wagner:   Here's a scan of the depot diagram as it appeared in Burlington Bulletin No. 37 on Burlington Boxes, CB&Q Two- and Three-Story Depot/Division Office Buildings of the 20th Century.  It shows the lunch counter to be on the street side of the building, away from the tracks, right where Archie described it as being.  And I agree with his recollection that there were a couple of small tables at the end of the counter.  I ate lunch there with a friend one day in June 1963.

 

Richard Gortowski:    One of the BRHS Galesburg meets featured a duplicate menu from the Griers (?) restaurant and I believe that Greg Baumgartner did a program on it.  Of course that was a long time ago...  My memory may be bad.

On Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 12:47 PM Jim G via groups.io <G4Trains=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

2-22-22   I am preparing a short article for our local NRHS chapter newsletter, about childhood train-riding recollections of a chapter member who grew up near Galesburg.  Do any of you recall the restaurant in the CB&Q Galesburg depot, from the 1950s?  Which part of the building was it in, was it in a wing that protruded from the main building, or anything else?  She recalls that one could look out the restaurant windows and see the passing trains.   thank you    

 

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