A student-created, digital rendering of the depot. (Texas A&M College of Architecture)
“These kinds of projects are what we like to do,” Fortenberry said. “It’s really illustrative of Texas A&M’s Land-Grant mission to aid these small Texas towns who don’t have a ton of money to rehab old buildings.”
Deanville was the agricultural hub of western Burleson County in the 1920s, shipping cotton and cord wood on the railways, according to Tommy Ryan, a member of the Deanville Heritage Foundation.
“The 1913 Depot is the last of the county’s original six depots,” Ryan said. “It definitely needs to be preserved for its historical value. We hope to restore it to its look in the 1920s, with telegraph lines, wall phones, waiting rooms, and freight containers.”
The plans created by the students were submitted to the Historic American Building Survey through the U.S. Department of the Interior and archived in the Library of Congress.
“The drawings will survive in perpetuity,” Fortenberry said. “The Library of Congress will become a steward of it forever.”
The Center for Heritage Conservation trains students, professionals and others in the use and application of imaging processes relative to historic and cultural resources. Students learn to develop new techniques for documentation, analysis, visualization and interpretation, and to apply imaging techniques to the study of historic resources.
CHC also oversees the College of Architecture’s Certificate in Historic Preservation, a program of courses integrated within a wide range of professional disciplines. The certificate, which has gained wide acclaim, serves as a model for other programs.