Landmarks: Former interurban train depot in Cheney home to El Rodeo

It once housed the platform where travelers waited to board the Washington Water Power Co.’s Interurban train line to travel into Spokane. Today, it’s a good place for a hot burrito lunch.

The depot building at 505 Second St. in Cheney, on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, is now home to El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant. The interior walls are covered with paintings that depict the ethnic flavor of the restaurant, but looking at the exterior – with its expansive overhanging roofline (9 feet on the front) – it’s easy to picture it as the train depot that it once was.

WWP constructed an interurban rail line from Spokane to Medical Lake on the former Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern roadbed in 1905. In an annual report to WWP’s stockholders, it was noted that “The water in Medical Lake is beneficial in rheumatism and kindred disorders and is visited by many people seeking relief … The only transportation … is by the Northern Pacific Railway … one passenger train a day each way …”

The demand for travel out to the West Plains was growing, however.

By 1907, a branch line about nine miles long (from the Hayford/Cheney Junction on the Medical Lake route in to the city of Cheney) was constructed, laying down new tracks. The depot building was erected to serve the thousands of passengers who would use the rail service for the next 15 years.

In his 1987 book “Spokane Street Railways: An Illustrated History,” author Charles Mutschler, archivist at Eastern Washington University, notes that the interurbans were powered by 600-volt DC electric systems, which required the location of substations along the route to boost the trolley voltage as needed.

The Cheney line predominantly provided transport for passengers along with some parcel service, but it was never very freight-capable, Mutschler said. During the interurban’s heyday, four trains ran daily each way. On Saturday nights there was a special “after theater” train that left Spokane at 10:55 p.m. and left Cheney at 12:05 for the 55-minute return run. Including trains on the Medical Lake route, there were 11 trains per day each way, plus freight runs.

The depot building in Cheney, with its foot-thick brick walls, was adjoined on three sides by wood loading docks and platforms, with a passenger promenade platform extending 23 feet from the south end of the building. The original interior was divided by hollow wall partitions into an office, a waiting room and a freight room, all heated by two coal-burning stoves. A storage basement was under the depot for perishable freight.

The rail line did a brisk business transporting general citizens, farmers and students until automobile transport became more prevalent. The year 1910 was the peak year for the number of passengers carried, but by 1921, according to Mutschler, “it became evident that the operation of the company’s suburban electric railway lines had not only ceased to be profitable, but would continue to show increasing losses. Consequently the operation was discontinued in March (1922) and the property dismantled.”

Mutschler said the building stood empty for a time, but has housed a convalescent facility, a secondhand store, a laundry, some restaurants and a bus station. It’s been the El Rodeo restaurant since last fall.

There are still trains running through Cheney, but the last passenger train service there stopped in May 1971, when both the Burlington Northern and Union Pacific passenger service halted. The electric interurban line ended long before that, but the depot building still stands as a reminder.