Staff writer
The old train depot at Lehigh found a home in Walton in 1976, when Max Davis purchased it at an auction. It was built almost 100 years earlier, when a branch line of the Santa Fe Railroad was established from Florence to McPherson.
“It was a closed bid auction, and my father’s was probably the only one they received,” said Max’s son, Glenn.
Glenn Davis remembers helping his father move the building.
“Us kids helped pick up the bricks from the platform,” he said.
At the time, his mother, Marjorie, was interested in using it for a restaurant, but her health deteriorated, preventing it from happening.
About a year ago, Bob Getty of Peabody, an antique dealer, purchased the building. It will be moved to a location along US-50 this summer and made into an antique store.
“It will take several years to get it into shape for a store,” Getty said.
The 70-year-old Getty has been involved in the antiques business for 30 years. He is a dealer in two antiques malls in Wichita.
After he retired from his job with the U.S. Postal Service — postmaster at Marquette and facilities construction manager in Wichita and Omaha — he and his wife, Sherri, bought a stone house about one mile west of Peabody. The house had been in a fire, and he had to gut the interior and rebuild it.
He is hoping to consolidate his antique business.
“The idea is, as I get older, I’ll want to get into smaller pieces and locate in one general area,” he said.
He is putting a roof on a shed at his place while saving money to move the depot.
All the renovating he has done since retiring has kept him busy.
“It’s kept me in shape and healthy,” he said.